Lab Write Up Example Update
Lab Write Up Example Update
Some of your science classes at Millersville University will require you to complete lab reports
or term papers for simple experiments to show that you understand the scientific method. The
scientific method usually includes (1) an Introduction section, (2) a Materials and Methods
section, (3) a Results section, (4) a Discussion section and a Literature Cited section.
The goal of a lab report should be to simply present the facts. The goal of science is truth,
thus no persuasion is necessary in this type of document.
Overall writing formats or guidelines for these lab reports should include the following:
1. The reports should be typed and double-spaced using a computer. Reports should be in
12 point size, Times New Roman style, have 1 inch margins, and organized neatly for the
reader to understand your experiment.
2. Correct spelling and grammar is a must, and the report should be written in complete
sentences (with subject and verb). Points may be deducted for incorrect spelling and
grammar.
3. Past tense should be used whenever writing about what you did in lab, since what you did
happened in the past.
5. Each section should be labeled with the appropriate heading (Introduction, Materials and
Methods, Results, Discussion, Literature Cited).
7. To help with clarity: proof-read, then have somebody else proof-read, and then
proof-read again.
The Following page begins an example lab write-up. Comments throughout this example
outline the reasoning for the writing style and further details on how to follow a proper
scientific writing style. THIS EXAMPLE IS TEXT LIGHT FOR YOUR BENEFIT.
YOUR PAPER WILL HAVE MORE SOURCES AND WAY MORE TEXT FOR EACH
SECTION.
John Smith
Principles of Zoology/Section B
Lab Report #3 Comment [ah1]: Student name, class, lab #,
and date should be at upper left and single-spaced.
JOHN SMITH, Millersville University, Millersville, PA, 17551. Comment [AH2]: Student name and school
address.
Abstract: We wanted to evaluate the effect of nitrogen fertilizer on American water weed Comment [AH3]: Term paper or lab reports
should include an abstract page after the title
page. An abstract is a paragraph that summarizes
(Elodea Canadensis) biomass growth. Our hypothesis was that more nitrogen fertilizer would the whole paper (all sections). I would
recommend writing the full paper and then writing
the abstract last. This will make things easier.
increase plant biomass. We used 5 cultured bowls in which to grow plants. Each cultured bowl
Developing a complete and solid abstract is very
important. Many times you will be submitting
contained an increasing amount of nitrogen fertilizer, starting with bowl 1 with the least amount this abstract of your research to scientific
symposiums and conferences so that you can gain
approval to present your research at these venues.
with increasing to bowl 5. We conducted 2 separate experiments to evaluate consistency of Comment [AH4]: Your abstract only needs to
be one paragraph. It should include the goals of
the paper, main points you found, results and any
results. We found that plant biomass growth increased with more nitrogen fertilizer to a point. discussion of these main points to your
hypothesis, future research needs or final
conclusions.
At the highest levels of nitrogen, plant growth declined dramatically. Both experiments had the
Citations are not in the abstract.
same conclusion with results having no significant difference (P > 0.05). We suggest further
research into the potential toxic impacts of too much nitrogen fertilizer on plant growth.
amounts of nitrogen. Ammonium nitrate was used as our source of nitrogen fertilizer.
Comment [AH6]: Citation style from source
that had 1 author.
The hypothesis tested was that since American water weed requires nitrogen to make Comment [ah7]: For every organism
mentioned you should include its scientific name
when it is first mentioned. This includes the
organic compounds like proteins (Chalk 1991), the more nitrogen it has available, the better it genus name that is capitalized and the species
name in lower case. The scientific name is in
italics and in parenthesis.
should grow. The null hypothesis was that nitrogen would have no impact on plant growth.
Comment [ah8]: Lab is written in past tense.
This lab is on work that you have already
completed.
Materials and Methods Comment [ah9]: Provide a discussion, in your
words, of the procedures you performed and all the
materials you used during the course of your
experiments. The Materials and Methods section
Five glass cultures bowls were filled with one liter of distilled water. Each bowl was should be written with clarity so another individual
could successfully replicate this experiment based
on your description. This section is written as a
given a different amount of ammonium nitrate as displayed in Table 1. narrative, NOT a bullet list of things you did.
water weed plant from each culture bowl was recorded and then compared for analysis. This
same procedure was run again for 5 more bowls to test for experiment consistency.
We used a student t-test assuming equal variance to compare the means between the 2
experiments using the EXCEL program. Statistical significance was based on a p-value ≥ 0.05. Comment [AH19]: The end of the materials
and methods section should describe the
quantitative analysis that was conducted. This is
what statistical test you used to analyze data.
Results Comment [ah20]: Your results should have text
which directly and concisely tells you the results of
the experiment. The results of your experiments
can often be displayed in the form of tables or
We wanted to test to see if the amount of nitrogen fertilizer impacts plant biomass figures (graphs or pictures). It is customary to
number and label each table and figure, and then
refer to each table and figure, in order, in the text of
growth. Plants with higher levels of nitrogen had greater plant mass except for bowl number 5 your report.
2.23 and mean of experiment was 2.10 (Figure 2). The t-statistic value was 0.25 and was less
than the t-critical value of 2.31, also the p-value was 0.81 which is greater than 0.05 (Table 2),
thus we found no significant difference in plant mass between experiments 1 and 2. The
American water weed plant in bowl 5 had started to turn brown and looked like it was dying, but
the plants in all other bowls looked green and healthy. Comment [ah21]: All paragraphs should be
more than one sentence.
3.5
Mean Plant Mass (g)
2.5
2 Experiment 1
1.5 Experiment 2
0.5
0
Bowl 1 Bowl 2 Bowl 3 Bowl 4 Bowl 5
Bowl Number Indicating Amount of Nitrogen (1 low;5 high)
Figure 1. Mean plant mass in bowls of increasing amounts of nitrogen for 2 experiments. Bowl
one had low levels of nitrogen while bowl 5 had very high levels as outlined in Table 1. Comment [ah23]: All Figures should have a
caption which is located at the bottom of the
figure (this is different from the Tables which
have the caption up top). Like Tables, every
Figure should be referenced in the text and then
displayed after referenced. Figures should be
labeled in the order they were referenced and
should be able to stand alone for interpretation.
4
Mean Plant Mass (g) For All 5 Bowls
3.5
2.5
1.5
0.5
2.23 2.1
0
Experiment 1 Experiment 2
Figure 2. Mean plant mass and standard deviation error bars for all 5 bowls in experiment 1 and
2. Comparative statistics are outlined in Table 3. Comment [ah24]: All Figures should have a
caption which is located at the bottom of the
figure (this is different from the Tables which
have the caption up top). Like Tables, every
Figure should be referenced in the text and then
Table 2. Results of a student t-test assuming equal variances between 2 experiments that both displayed after referenced. Figures should be
labeled in the order they were referenced and
tested impacts of nitrogen levels on plant biomass growth. There was no significant difference should be able to stand alone for interpretation.
between the two experiments (t-statistic t< t-critical; p-value = 0.81).
Experiment 1 Experiment 2
t-statistic 0.25
t-critical 2.31
The plant in bowl 5 showed the least growth. It only had one-third of the mass when
compared with the negative control (i.e., bowl 1). Even though it was given the most nitrogen,
the plant in bowl 5 appeared to be dying. There could be various reasons for this result. It is
possible that the plant had developed a disease during the experiment (Campell and Madden
1990), but this would have to be investigated more. Another possibility is that the nitrogen level Comment [AH26]: Citation style for a source
with two authors.
in bowl 5 was too high, and was toxic to plant growth at that level. Britto et al. (2001) found that Comment [AH27]: Citation style for a source
with more than two authors.
high levels of ammonium (a nitrogen source) can have toxic implications for a number of plant Comment [ah28]: Your discussion should
also have text on why your hypothesis was
supported or not supported.
species. Repeating the experiment may help determine which of these possibilities is correct,
and if high levels of nitrogen can be toxic to plants. Comment [ah29]: Always good to give
recommendations of what the next step should be
after your experiment has been completed.
Campell, C. L. and Madden, L.V. 1990. Introduction to plant disease epidemiology. John Comment [AH31]: Make sure you are using
the original sources for your information. If a
book or journal article cites another source for the
Wiley & Sons. New York, New York. information you use, you must cite the original
source.
Chalk, P.M. 1991. The contribution of associative and symbiotic nitrogen fixation to the
Written and oral communications are extremely powerful ways of representing yourself to others. Using
proper grammar when speaking and writing for professional audiences can be a tremendous asset to your
professional success. Obviously, inadequate writing or speaking will severely limit your career
development.
Attention to detail and proofreading your work will be critical to successful writing!
Correct: The two extractions were combined. They were then dried for five hours.
2 Subject-verb agreement If the subject is singular (or plural) the verb must match appropriately. In the following
defective sentence, the noun is plural while its verb is singular.
Remember, the only way to really check spelling is to PROOFREAD your work because
spell checkers do not catch all errors.
4 Affect vs. effect "Affect" is a verb, "effect" is a noun. Remembering the acronym "NEVA" (noun effect
verb affect) may help. Examples:
The effect of the medication was noticeable.
Examples:
The data are ....
The datum is...
6 Do NOT use quotes Avoid using verbatim quotations from technical references. Instead, reword phrases/ideas
from the reference and then cite the reference that presented that idea.
Example:
“To be or not to be, that is the question”.
Revision:
The ultimate question is whether or not one should pursue existence in this life
(Shakespeare, 1592).
7 Use of contractions "It's" is the contraction of "it is". In general, avoid using any contractions in scientific
(especially its vs. it's) writing.
Fifteen chickens crossed the road. (incorrect: 15 chickens crossed the road.)
Incorrect: homo sapiens, Homo sapiens, Homo Sapiens, Homo Sapiens, etc.
Incorrect: Since they have rich soil, tall-grass prairies were rapidly converted to row crop
agriculture.
Examples:
Smith et al. (1983) found that... (indicates that this reference had at least three authors, the
first of whom was Smith).
Smith and Jones (1999) found that... (indicates that this reference had two authors).
13 Than vs. Then The word “then” is used in many ways, but it is always used to denote time or sequence
in some way, shape or form. The word “than” is a conjunction used in comparisons. To
put it simply, if you are doing a comparison, use “than”; if not, use “then.”
14 There vs. Their vs. They’re The word “there” indicates location. The word “their” is the possessive for “they.” The
word “they’re” is a contraction for “they are.”