What are we hoping to learn from this experiment?.

What are we going to do in this lab? (That is, what’s the procedure?).

What are we hoping to learn from this experiment? Read your lab manual thoroughly, well before you start to carry out the experiment.

To make sure you know enough to write the report, complete the following steps: Obviously, if you don’t quite know what went on during the lab, you’re going to find it difficult to explain the lab satisfactorily to someone else. The best way to prepare to write the lab report is to make sure that you fully understand everything you need to about the experiment. What should I do before drafting the lab report? You might consider using each assignment to practice different approaches to drafting the report, to find the order that works best for you. For example, many writers find that composing their Methods and Results before the other sections helps to clarify their idea of the experiment or study as a whole. We’re going to proceed by explicitly connecting each section of the lab report to the scientific method, then explaining why and how you need to elaborate that section.Īlthough this handout takes each section in the order in which it should be presented in the final report, you may for practical reasons decide to compose sections in another order. Thinking of your research report as based on the scientific method, but elaborated in the ways described above, may help you to meet your audience’s expectations successfully. (perhaps) expresses the data in table form, as an easy-to-read figure, or as percentages/ratiosĬonsiders whether the data you obtained support the hypothesisĮxplores the implications of your finding and judges the potential limitations of your experimental design Provides raw (i.e., uninterpreted) data collected SectionĮxplains how you derived that hypothesis and how it connects to previous research gives the purpose of the experiment/studyĬlarifies why you performed your study in that particular way Below, you’ll find a table that shows how each written section fits into the scientific method and what additional information it offers the reader. In essence, the format for a research report in the sciences mirrors the scientific method but fleshes out the process a little.

The scientific method, you’ll probably recall, involves developing a hypothesis, testing it, and deciding whether your findings support the hypothesis. Overall, however, the IMRAD format was devised to represent a textual version of the scientific method. This format, sometimes called “IMRAD,” may take slightly different shapes depending on the discipline or audience some ask you to include an abstract or separate section for the hypothesis, or call the Discussion section “Conclusions,” or change the order of the sections (some professional and academic journals require the Methods section to appear last). Here is the basic format scientists have designed for research reports: Your job as a writer, then, is to fulfill these two goals. They want to know that the findings are legitimate.They want to gather the information presented.

The people reading such reports have two primary goals: Generally speaking, people investigating some scientific hypothesis have a responsibility to the rest of the scientific world to report their findings, particularly if these findings add to or contradict previous ideas. So why are you writing this research report? The practical answer is “Because the teacher assigned it,” but that’s classroom thinking. As long as you understand and respect these values, your writing will likely meet the expectations of your audience-including your teacher. In fact, you and your teacher are both part of a scientific community, and the people who participate in this community tend to share the same values. To take some of the guesswork out of answering these questions, try to think beyond the classroom setting. But how exactly do you write all that? What is your teacher expecting to see? You feel that you understood the background sufficiently, designed and completed the study effectively, obtained useful data, and can use those data to draw conclusions about a scientific process or principle. You did an experiment or study for your science class, and now you have to write it up for your teacher to review. Background and pre-writing Why do we write research reports? Readers of this handout may also find our handout on writing in the sciences useful. In addition to describing the conventional rules about the format and content of a lab report, we’ll also attempt to convey why these rules exist, so you’ll get a clearer, more dependable idea of how to approach this writing situation. This handout provides a general guide to writing reports about scientific research you’ve performed. Scientific Reports What this handout is about

Scientific element table