Part 1: Lab Reports

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).

6. Do not plagiarize (the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of

another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of
them as one's own original work).

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.

IMPACTS OF NITROGEN ON PLANT GROWTH

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.

Comment [ah5]: In the Introduction you start

Introduction out describing a question about what your research
is going to answer. Then you give background
The purpose of this lab was to examine the effect of nitrogen fertilization on plant literature on all the other studies that have tried to
answer this question or tried to answer questions
similar to the one you are doing research on. Then
growth. Nitrogen occurs in all living organisms and is believed to be an important nutrient for you briefly state the objectives of your experiments
and the type of experiments you performed.
Towards the end of your Introduction you specify
plant growth (Chalk 1991). To evaluate the impacts of nitrogen on plant growth, the aquatic the goal of your experiments and state a hypothesis
of what you expect to happen during the
experiment.
plant American water weed (Elodea canadensis) was grown in water containing different
Your introduction will be much longer.

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.

Your Methods and Material will be much longer.

Table 1. Grams of ammonium nitrate added to each culture bowl to evaluate the impacts of Comment [ah10]: Again the use of past tense.
nitrate on plant growth. Comment [ah11]: All tables need to be
referenced in the text before they appear in the
report.
Bowl no. Ammonium nitrate (g)
Comment [ah12]: Every table should be
labeled and numbered based on when it is
referenced in the text. The data in this table was
1 0 g (negative control) referenced first, thus this is Table 1.
Comment [ah13]: Each Table should have a
caption consisting of a sentence or two describing
2 0.1 g the data in the Table. The goal of producing a
table is to be able to have it stand alone so
someone could read the table without reading the
text and still understand the data being recorded.
3 1g Captions for Tables are located on top of the
table. Data in the table is centered, except for the
first column which provides labels for each row.
Tables should not have vertical lines, thus DO
NOT cut and paste from EXCEL.
4 10 g

5 100 g Comment [ah14]: No vertical lines should be

in the tables. Vertical lines make the data harder
to see and make the table look incomplete. All
data should be centered except for the first
Five sprigs of American water weed, with a mass of about 0.4 g , was placed into each column.
Comment [ah15]: All numbers need to be
written out when beginning a sentence.
culture bowl. The culture bowls were placed in a growth chamber set to a12 hr light period per
Comment [AH16]: Note that this sample size
is too small. Again, this is a shortened lab report
day and an average temperature of 28 °C for three weeks. Water was added during the course of for guidance purposes.
Comment [AH17]: All numbers should have a
the experiment to keep the solution level at one liter in each bowl, but no additional ammonium digit in front of a decimal if there is a decimal.
Comment [AH18]: Make sure all your
numbers have the correct units indicated.
nitrate was added. At the end of the three-week period, the mean final mass of each American

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.

Your results section will be longer.

(Figure 1). We found the same results for both experiments, where the mean of experiment 1 was

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.

4.5 Comment [ah22]: All axis should be labeled

and have correct units.
4

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

Mean 2.23 g 2.10 g

Variance 2.20 g 1.79 g

t-statistic 0.25

t-critical 2.31

2-tailed p-value 0.81

Discussion Comment [ah25]: Mention the conclusions you
have drawn from the data you have presented in
the Results section. Defend your conclusions by
referring to the supporting data. Indicate whether
The results of the experiment generally matched what was expected based on the your results agree or disagree with your hypothesis,
and attempt to explain possible reasons why your
results may not fit your hypothesis. Compare your
hypothesis being tested, with the exception of the bowl 5 results. It was thought that increases in results to those of other research in peer-reviewed
literature to help explain your results.
nitrogen would lead to increases in plant growth. Plant mass did increase with increasing Your Discussion will be much longer.

nitrogen in bowls 1 through 4, but declined in bowl 5 (Figure 1).

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.

Literature Cited Comment [AH30]: Should be in alphabetical

order and list all the citations used in your paper.
All citations used in the text should be listed here.
Britto, D. T., Siddiqi, M. Y., Glass, A. D., & Kronzucker, H. J. 2001. Futile transmembrane
Make sure your literature cited section is in the
proper style for journal articles, books, book
NH4+ cycling: a cellular hypothesis to explain ammonium toxicity in plants. Proceedings chapters etc. Do not use webpages. Come see me
if you need to use one as a source. Follow the
style guidelines outlined in your lab manual.
of the National Academy of Sciences 98: 4255-4258.
Your Literature Cited will be much longer.

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

nitrogen nutrition of non-legumes. Plant Soil 132: 29–39.

 COMMON WRITING ERRORS

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!

ERROR TYPE OF ERROR COMMENTS

1 Incomplete sentences Topping the list of writing errors is incomplete sentences.
Incorrect: The two extractions were combined. Then dried for five hours.

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.

Incorrect: Our results indicates the significance of intracellular signaling systems.

Correct: Our results indicate the significance of intracellular signaling systems.

3 Misspelled words Use your spell checker!

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.

Medication rates affect the level of hypertension.

5 Data vs. datum "Data" is plural, "datum" is singular.

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.

Incorrect: Results didn't differ among treatment groups.

Correct: Results did not differ among treatment groups.

8 Writing numbers less than (.78 vs. 0.78)
1.0 When writing a number that is less than 1.0, always place a zero to the left of the decimal.

Incorrect: .454, .8, etc.

Correct: 0.454, 0.8, etc.

9 Writing numbers Spell out numbers at the start of a sentence and one digit numbers (zero – nine) appearing
(general rules - these rules anywhere in a sentence. Never begin a sentence with a numeral.
vary somewhat in different Use numerals when a number has a unit of measure, when reporting statistics or when the
style manuals) number refers to a page, time, date, figure, table, magnification, etc. In a series
containing some numbers greater than nine, use numerals for all.
Note the appropriate use of numbers in the following examples:

Fifteen chickens crossed the road. (incorrect: 15 chickens crossed the road.)

Insects have six walking legs.

We had 425 insect specimens in our collection.

All 10 of us attended lab this week.

Ten of us attended lab this week.

Most tissue samples weighed less than 15 grams.

Several tissue samples weighed less than 4 grams.

The audience included three students and eight instructors.

The audience included 3 students, 8 instructors, and 13 chinchillas.

The experimental diet caused body mass to increase by 5% (Table 2).

10 Writing species names Biologists are especially ‘picky’ about writing species names. See lab manual pg. 42 for
important rules that apply to zoological nomenclature.

Incorrect: homo sapiens, Homo sapiens, Homo Sapiens, Homo Sapiens, etc.

Correct: Homo sapiens (or Homo sapiens when handwritten)

11 Since vs. Because "Since" should be restricted to making time comparisons.

Incorrect: Since they have rich soil, tall-grass prairies were rapidly converted to row crop
agriculture.

Correct: Since settlement by Europeans, tall-grass prairies have largely disappeared.

Because of its rich soil, tall-grass prairies were rapidly converted to row crop agriculture.
12 When to use "et al." The phrase "et al." is used when making an internal citation of a work that has three or
more authors. (Review internal citation format, pg. 24 in your lab manual.) Because this
phrase is derived from Latin, it is usually italicized.

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.”