Guidelines for Writing a Lab Report
The format to be used in preparing your written laboratory reports is similar to that you may hve used in Biology 101-102. Please consult the following guidelines when preparing your report.
All reports should contain a TITLE PAGE, and the following sections: INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION and LITERATURE CITED. The RESULTS section will typically contain one or more Tables, and/or Drawings (Figures) to present your results. Lab reports are not meant to be a literature review or require extensive library research, and they need not be lengthy.
Use correct English grammar and spelling. ALWAYS be sure to use your own words. You may paraphrase ideas of others and some words and/or phrases must be repeated to be accurate, but sentences should reflect your own style of expression. You are required to type the text of your reports. Public use computers are available many places on campus if you do not have a personal computer. Be sure to number your pages. It is not necessary to begin each section on a separate page, but you might find it convenient to do so.
TITLE PAGE- a concise and informative statement of the experiment centered on the page, your full name and the date. The scientific name of any organism used should be given and either italicized or underlined (because scientific names are Latin words, and non-English words are distinguised using this convention). The naming convention is also to capitalize the name of the genus, but not the species, e.g., Ambystoma maculatum or Homo sapiens, Canus domesticus, Gallus domesticus. The complete name of the organism should be used in the title and the first time it appears in the report; thereafter it should be referred to in abbreviated form, e.g., A. maculatum. In the body of the text, it is proper to refer to the organism by its common name, e.g., salamander.
INTRODUCTION- a short statement that contains (1) appropriate background information (be sure to include citations for your sources of information) and (2) explains the purpose of the experiment. In some cases, the purpose can be phrased in terms of a testable hypothesis; in other situations, the objective of the experiment is to find out whether treatment groups respond differently. In both situations, your goal is to make accurate observations to answer a question. Appropriate background information includes materials discussed or distributed in class or lab. The appropriate length of this section is 1-3 paragraphs.
MATERIALS AND METHODS- a complete description of your experimental plan that tells your reader what you intended to do, and how you planned to do it! You should also indicate any voluntary or involuntary departures from the initially planned procedures in this section, or observed variability in your own techniques. If you did the experiment with lab partners include their names in this section. It is acceptable to write the Methods and Results sections using the first person.
RESULTS- in this section, present the data obtained in your experiment. You should include a clear written description of what you observed and/or measured, pointing out differences and similarities between embryos, unusual or missing pieces of data, etc. Honesty and full disclosure is always the best approach to a lab report. You should organize your findings in conventional paragraph form, however tables, graphs, and/or drawings may be the most concise and effective means of documenting your results, and these should be used where appropriate. They should be numbered consecutively and be described with a brief legend. Do not merely submit a series of tables and graphs without accompanying text. Units of measure (stage, time, etc.) should be clearly stated. In graphs, axes should be labeled and units of measurement given. The horizontal axis (abscissa) should contain the independent variable (e.g., time), whereas the vertical axis should contain the dependent variable. Introduce your data tables and graphs or figures with complete sentences.
DISCUSSION- you should begin the section with a brief general summary of your findings, and then discuss the meaning of your results. Present your interpretations of the results and explain them in terms of the hypothesis you were testing, if there was a hypothesis. As discussed above, some descriptive reports will not have an obviously testable hypothesis. What conclusions, if any, can you draw from your results? How do you explain results that are contrary to what you expected or contrary to data from similar experiments performed by others? Are additional studies necessary? If so, for what reason(s)?
LITERATURE CITED- reference to any work that is not your own must be acknowledged in the text of your report by giving the author and date [e.g., "Hamburger (1960) stated ..." or "similar results were obtain by Spemann (1918)." or "according to Hamburger (1960), Coghill (1929) obtained similar results." This citation style is known as APA style (American Psychological Association). Do not use footnotes to cite your literature sources. The complete bibliographic citation for each reference should appear in this section. One of the many scientific referencing styles is the one used in your syllabus and in our textbook Developmental Biology at the conclusion of each chapter. Choose a style that gives your reader complete information, and be consistent about using it. If lab handouts and/or your textbook are your sources of information, they must be cited.
[Adapted with permission from Gardiner, S.L. (1987) Introductory Biology: Cell Biology and Genetics. Bryn Mawr College.]
This page was posted 26 February 2003