Writing Lab Reports

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In the sciences, you will often use the scientific method to carry out experiments. Lab reports are written afterward to summarize your experiment, your hypothesis, predictions, and your findings. These reports have a strict format and guidelines that you must follow. The below guides were used with permission from Aims' Biology Professor, Emma Murray, Ph.D., and her Biology for Majors I and II Laboratory Manual and Workbook.

General Tips for Labs

• Read your assignment sheet carefully and check for lab-specific questions that must be answered. Use the formatting style of your professor's choice, whether that's APA, Chicago Style, or something else.

• Use the third-person point of view for the entire report.

• Rarely quote. Paraphrase quotes instead.

• Organize your report into separate sections as explained below. 

• Use correct grammar, spelling, and syntax. However;

• Write in your own voice. No need to sound like a doctorate-level scientist (or a thesaurus).

• Have fun!

Sections in a Lab Report

Title Page

A good title should summarize your experiment.  Add your name and class section here, too.

Introduction

This introduces the topic and experiment while containing: 

• Background information: for example, in a lab looking at photosynthesis, you'd define photosynthesis, list organisms that carry out photosynthesis, and why it is important. You'd also add information from studies and other sources to give credit and avoid plagiarism, to support your statements, and to guide the reader to further reading. Example: Migrant birds are declining (Robbins & Sanderson, 2000).

• A purpose: a very clear specific statement of the purpose of the experiment. Example: this experiment will determine whether birds visit feeders based on the distance to cover.

• Hypothesis and Prediction: remember, these are different.

  • • The hypothesis is a statement or assumption that you will test to be true or not based upon background information if possible. For example, your hypothesis about what birds might visit feeders at various distances from a forest edge should be based upon what you know about birds and how they feed and behave: Birds will visit feeders closer to a cover as they have less risk of being seen by predators.

    • However, your prediction states what result(s) you would expect to see in your experiment if your hypothesis was true, for example: feeders placed closer to the forest edge will be visited by higher numbers of birds and more species than those further away from the forest edge. 

Methods 

This is a clear, detailed description of the materials used and the process followed to get your results. The purpose of the methods is to describe, in the past tense, exactly how you did your experiment to lead to the results you collected. Someone else should be able to replicate your experiment exactly using the methods section alone. Importantly, present the methods that you used, even if they differ from your lab manual. Note if any of your methods were repeated.

Results 

Present your results and further analyses here, and include the number of samples without discussing what your results mean.  Make your results clear, do not repeat data, and add summaries and visuals like graphs that communicate your results easily to the reader.  

Discussion and Conclusion 

This is where you say what your results actually mean. 

• State whether your results support or do not support your hypotheses. Example: This report's hypothesis about birds showing a preference for feeders closer to the forest edge was correct, but is only supported for smaller species.

• State whether your predictions were correct. (It's ok if your hypothesis or predictions were incorrect!)

• Include outside sources to show if you found the same thing as other scientists. Remember to cite your sources.

• Add how you would improve the design of the experiment. Were there any issues with your experiment or if you had unexpected results, why? Be specific! Explain how you think something may have influenced the results and how it could be corrected.

References Page

All works that are cited within the report must appear here as a full citation. All works that appear here must be cited within the text of your report.