FORMAL LAB REPORTS
The formal report documents
the experiment that was performed and provides a detailed discussion of the
results obtained and how those are important. It organizes and clarifies the
information that can be found in a good lab notes, adding background material
and a more detailed discussion of the results. From such a report, a peer
group of engineers (or engineering students) who are familiar with the same
general subject matter should be able to reproduce the experiment and perform
their own analysis, such that they could either verify or dispute your
conclusions. Reports generally have three goals: 1) to justify the reasons for
performing the experiment; 2) to record the results of the experiment; and 3)
to allow others to evaluate the results.
You should consider your audience to be familiar with
the general engineering background associated with your experiment, but none of
the specifics. For instance, your target audience has a general background in
heat transfer but only very limited or no specific knowledge of boiling. The report
must incorporate grammatically correct sentences, correct spelling, and be
structured in a clear and concise manner. In addition, it should contain
publication-ready, professional graphics and illustrations.
Late reports will be
penalized. The preferred method of submitting your lab reports is using the Classes web server. Please submit a single
file containing all text and graphs. Please use a filename containing both your
name and the name of the lab.
If you submit a hardcopy, please staple or clip
together firmly all pages that you hand in, including printouts, if any.
Formal reports should
contain the following components:
Title Page:
The title page should
clearly display:
Abstract:
The abstract should contain
one or two paragraphs which clearly and concisely present an overview of the
report. Complete sentences must be used, not phrases. Nine out of ten readers
will read only the abstract of an engineering report - therefore, it is
imperative that clear, concise, to-the-point information be used. Include information on
Introduction and
Background:
This section is written to
provide the reader with all the background needed to appreciate why you did the
experiment and to understand your results and conclusions. To accomplish this,
you may need to provide a brief review of previous work or of relevant
theoretical material, including appropriate references. The introduction should
provide:
Main Body of the Report
The main body should
consist of four sections: Objectives, Method, Results and Conclusions. Each
section must be clearly identified with a heading. Write each section in a
logical, coherent manner using complete sentences.
Objectives
Identify the main
objective(s) of the experiment. You should be able to cover this section in one
brief paragraph, i.e. two or three well written sentences. You may paraphrase
statements found in lab handouts but do not copy them.
Methods and Procedures (not more than 2-3 pages)
Write about the general
strategy used to obtain the data. Identify the equipment you have used and the
data collection techniques. A schematic of the experiment is almost always
necessary. Describe your procedures in such detail that the knowledgeable
reader could reproduce your experiment or analyze potential flaws. The intent
of this section is to:
Results and Discussion
Present all relevant
observations you made, including any qualitative ones. Prepare graphs and tables that best display
the results of the experiment and discuss them. For some experiments, you'll be acquiring a
lot of data using the computer. Do not include these reams of raw numeric data
in your lab report; present it in appropriate graphs and tables.
Indicate trends, analyze why they occur, and explain
any significant features or differences from expected results. Do your measurements and calculated values
make sense? If you have measured a
physiologic parameter, does it fall within the normal range? If your data don't make sense, point out what
possible problems might have occurred. Be
as specific and quantitative as possible. Avoid the use of catch-all phrases
such as "human error." Always comment on "wild" data
points. Graphs and tables must be numbered and referenced in the text. More
detailed information on graphs is given below.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Present the conclusions you
draw from the results. All conclusions should be clearly stated and supported
with evidence. Cite specific results and observations from the experiment and
tie them to your conclusions. Summarize reasons for any disagreement between
your results and the expected results. Recommend ways to correct problems that
may have led to discrepancies or bad data points. Recommend any practical way of improving the
experiment.
Graphs, Tables and Figures
Graphs and tables should be
clear and logical. They should be free-standing and carefully labeled, so that
the reader can understand them without referring to the text. Hence, you will
have to choose figure captions and table titles carefully. Note that "x vs
y" or anything similar is rarely appropriate - captions and titles should
be descriptive of the experiment. Each graph should be properly scaled to
display the variation legibly and drawn using standard data symbols and curve drawing
techniques. Be sure to include plot
labels, coordinate labels and units. Check whether your data will be better
represented by a linear, semi-log or log plot.
Figures should be included in the text in order to enhance the
readability of the report and avoid forcing the reader to flip pages. The text
should reference all figures and tables by number rather than by title. Don't use color unless absolutely necessary.
Use the X axis for the known parameter and the Y axis for the variable under
study.
Examples: http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/classes/bio542l/essays/graphtypes.html
Additional Notes:
Reports will be graded
largely on their ability to clearly communicate results and important
conclusions to the reader. You must, of
course, use proper English and spelling, along with comprehensible logic and appropriate
style. You should proofread your report as well as spell-check it.
o
Neatness and
organization will also influence the grade a report receives. Be sure to follow
explicitly the format indicated above. Type reports, and attach lab notes as
appendices.
o
Avoid being
overly verbose and flowery when attempting to convey your point - be
concise.
o
Avoid qualitative
phrases such as "the results were quite close" or "heat fluxes
were in good agreement with the correlation." Be as quantitative as
possible.
o
Do not copy
material without citing the source. This includes lab manuals, text books, your
neighbor, old labs, etc. Plagiarism, of any degree, will not be accepted; you
will be asked to redo the report and docked accordingly.
References:
Cite complete references
for any information that you draw on.
Appendices:
Appendices contain detailed
information which is not necessary for the understanding of the key points in
the body of the report, provided that the reader believes you when you state
that "The details can be found in Appendix X." The appendix is where you must provide
detailed documentation which is important to the experiment but too cumbersome
for the general text. You should include Appendices on the following:
0. A label identifying the calculation.
1. Statement of the equation in symbolic form.
2. Identification of variables (include units).
3. Sufficient description that the readers can follow
your work.
4. Substitution of one set of numbers.
5. Carry the units and USE THEM!!!
An example is shown below:
Heat Transfer Coefficient
h = q/(Ts - To )
h = heat transfer coefficient (W/m2°C)
q = heat flux (W/m2)
Ts = surface temperature (°C)
To = ambient temperature (°C)
using numbers from the first data point:
h = (100)/(60-20) =
2.5 W/m2°C
Do not include computations for every single data
point as this gets messy and hard to follow.
Length of the report:
While different labs will vary in length, it is
expected that no report would be longer than about 8 pages of text and may well
be shorter. A concise report will likely be clearer. Avoid duplicate information unless absolutely
necessary. Do not repeat experimental
procedure descriptions when the procedure in part X was the same as in part Y. Simply refer back to the procedure used
earlier.
Adapted from: http://www.me.umn.edu/courses/me4331/formal.html
(Richard Goldstein)