Experiments are necessary for science education. Students need observation and tests to learn about phenomena and things. Lab reports are essential for experiments. In these reports, you will record every happening of an investigation. With the help of lab reports, students can think about the how and the why.

For all laboratory courses, you have to create impressive lab reports. Sometimes, you will get an outline from instructors to write a report. If you have this outline, it is essential to follow this to create a comprehensive report.

Format of Lab Report

A standard lab report contains a title page, references, appendices, and abstract. Use double-line text spacing, 12 font size, and page numbers. A lab report must include a thread of argument along with prediction in the introduction.

Title page of a report must represent the purpose of the study. It should include the DV and IV instead of writing questions.

Impressive Abstract

It is a fundamental part of a lab report with a comprehensive and concise summary. Keep it brief and easy to understand. Try to keep it brief, such as 150 words. Summary must contain 1 to 2 sentences to provide the rationale and aim for the study.

  • Describe settings and participants: how many, what groups, where, when, and who.
  • Describe necessary methods, such as experimental treatment, design, questionnaires, tests, or surveys used.
  • This section must contain significant findings that may include statistics and significance levels or sum up the outcomes.
  • The last sentence must outline the contribution of studies to knowledge in the literature. Explain the findings of an experiment.

Introduction

The introduction must explain the origin of your hypothesis. It is necessary to explicit the hypothesis and purpose of your study. Start this section with a brief introduction and general theory. Narrow down your report to relevant research and theory. You have to explain the logical progression of ideas that assists the flow of lab reports.

Explain the Method

When writing a lab report, you will assume that readers do not know your experiment. Explain your method in this report so that others can replicate this process. Write this section in the past tense. You must not explain or justify anything in the method. Make sure to give sufficient details for a reader to replicate an experiment. Everything must be concise in writing.

Important Subheadings

A lab report must have some crucial subheadings such as design, participants, materials, and procedure. State your experimental design with name and independent variables. Mention some dependent variables and make them operationalized.

Identify the type of sample and target population. Describe materials used in an experiment. There is no need to include material replication. Precisely describe the process you followed in carrying out research. A concise description must consist of essential details.

Results

In this section, you will present descriptive statistics. Avoid inferring the outcomes with unnecessary words. The findings must be concise and clear. For descriptive statistics, you have to create a table. It will make data easy to understand. You must not include raw data in this section.