Documenting an experiment:

IMRD

1.0 Introduction Documents have these four sections. The

Introduction describes the problem to be solved
and the objective of the experiment. The
Methods describes how the experiment was
conducted, down to the last detail. A good
methods section has enough information that

2.0 Methods someone could replicate the experiment. The

Results shows the data and the analyzed data
and typically includes plots and tables. Results
are objective. The Discussion has your
subjective interpretation of the results. A good
example for determining what is a result and
what is a discussion is this. “The temperature
3.0 Results was 85 degrees F” is a result while, “It was hot”
belongs in the discussion because hot is your
interpretation of the data.
Writing hints: Write in 1st person active or 3rd
person passive. Results written in past tense.

4.0 Discussion
A good document has...

• Title
– Meaningful and descriptive
• Authors, affiliation, date
• Citations
A non-descriptive title is “The beam
experiment.” A descriptive title is
“Experimentally Determined Elastic Modulus of
a Yardstick.”
Citations are very important. If you use an
equation or include a figure, cite the source of
the equation or figure. The rule is that without a
cite, you drew the figure or took the photograph
or you derived the equation.
A good document has….

• Clear, simple writing

• No jargon
• Just the right amount of information
• Meaning to the reader
• Pictures and graphics where appropriate
• Meaningful data plots
• No spelling, grammatical errors, typos
I wrapped the tape around the four
legs of my dining room table. I
counted 133 wraps plus some left
over so that meant the tape was
812 ft. long.

Example of a poor methods section for an experiment whose objective was to find the
length of a video tape. The description does not have sufficient details to replicate the
methods.
I measured the distance around the four
legs of my dining room table. To measure
the distance, I wrapped a string around
the legs, then laid the string tight on a 25
ft. carpenters tape. The distance was 6 ft.
1 in. (to the nearest inch) I then wrapped
the video tape around the legs and
counted 133 complete wraps plus three
feet of tape left over. The total tape length
was therefore (133 x 6.083) + 3 = 812 ft. I
believe this number is accurate to +- 1.0 ft.
Example of a good methods section. Lots of details and includes estimates of accuracy.
How To Cite

• For credibility, must cite sources

• Common knowledge need not be cited
– “Water is wet”
– F = ma
• Special knowledge must be cited
– “There are 780,000 new cases of stroke each
year in the U.S.
3
– y= PL
48EI
Academic Paper Example
Information Sources to Cite

• Academic journal and conference papers

• Text books
• Trade magazine articles
• Catalogs and data sheets
• Manufacturer web sites
• Government web sites
Suggestions

• Use accepted style (ASME, APA, Harvard,…)

• Use RefWorks or EndNote or Zotero to manage
citations
• Resources at UMN library and elsewhere
– RefWorks
www.lib.umn.edu/site/refworks.phtml
– Tutorial by UMN library
http://tutorial.lib.umn.edu/infomachineb5bb.html?moduleID=10
– Durfee lab engineering writing page
http://www.me.umn.edu/labs/hmd/lab/writing.html
Data plots

• Understand objectives
• Pick the right data set
• Pick the best plot format
• Format and style
– Data dominates
– Label axes, quantity (units)
– Descriptive title
Read these classic books for another take on presenting data.
Be Honest and Keep It Simple

• Chart must reflect data accurately

• Watch out for “Lie Factor”
– (size of graphic effect)/(size of data effect)
• Focus on data
• Avoid “chartjunk” (Tufte)
A confusing figure because the dollars come in chunks but the scale is uniform. Plus y-axis anchor is not zero.
 Research Note
U.S. Department of Transportation

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

January 1998
Crash Data and Rates for Age-Sex Groups of Drivers, 1996
Ezio C. Cerrelli
1996 DRIVER CRASH AND FATALITY DATA - ALL DRIVERS

DRIVER LICENSED A VERA GE TOTA L M ILES DRIVERS IN DRIVERS DRIVER CRA SH INV. FA T.INV. F A T A LIT Y CRA SH INV. FA T.INV. F A T A LIT Y
A GE DRIVERS A NNUA L OF TRA VEL A LL CRA SHES IN FA TA L FA TA LITIES R A T E (*) R A T E (*) R A T E (*) R A T E (*) RATE R A T E (*)

GROUP (tho usands) TRA VEL (millio ns) (tho usands) CRA SHES (per VM T) (per VM T) (per VM T) (per LIC.) (per LIC.) (per LIC.)
16 - 1,579 6,445 10,180 422 1,663 696 4,146 16.34 6.8 267 1.05 0.44
17 2,313 7,366 17,037 408 1,427 541 2,396 8.38 3.2 177 0.62 0.23
18 2,554 9,097 23,235 407 1,740 749 1,752 7.49 3.2 159 0.68 0.29
19 2,787 11,737 32,717 375 1,626 698 1,145 4.97 2.1 134 0.58 0.25
20-24 15,259 11,611 177,172 1,569 7,895 3,513 886 4.46 2 103 0.52 0.23
25-29 18,302 12,846 235,110 1,494 6,631 2,743 635 2.82 1.2 82 0.36 0.15
30-34 19,992 13,397 267,822 1,446 6,395 2,613 540 2.39 1 72 0.32 0.13
35-39 20,960 12,939 271,192 1,467 5,917 2,347 541 2.18 0.9 70 0.28 0.11
40-44 19,528 13,771 268,912 1,147 4,743 1,922 427 1.76 0.7 59 0.24 0.1
45-49 17,464 13,424 234,442 1,057 3,892 1,560 451 1.66 0.7 61 0.22 0.09
50-54 13,603 12,214 166,150 637 2,916 1,206 383 1.76 0.7 47 0.21 0.09
55-59 10,599 11,582 122,765 456 2,177 944 371 1.77 0.8 43 0.21 0.09
60-64 9,051 10,422 94,325 351 1,896 907 372 2.01 1 39 0.21 0.1
65-69 8,465 8,997 76,163 312 1,645 882 410 2.16 1.2 37 0.19 0.1
70-74 7,354 7,072 52,005 271 1,605 956 521 3.09 1.8 37 0.22 0.13
75-79 5,279 5,647 29,815 195 1,379 877 654 4.63 2.9 37 0.26 0.17
80-84 2,916 4,655 13,575 106 998 704 782 7.35 5.2 36 0.34 0.24
85 + 1,533 3,907 5,992 55 611 475 912 10.2 7.9 36 0.4 0.31
TOTA L 179,539 11,689 2,098,607 12,173 55,156 24,333 580 2.63 1.2 68 0.31 0.14

(*) R a t e s are per 100,000,000 Vehicle Miles of Travel and per 1,000 Licensed Drivers

Tables make it hard to find the data. Good for appendices but not for the main body or for presentations.
DRIVER F A T A LIT Y
A GE R A T E (*)

GROUP (per VM T)
16 - 6.8
17 3.2
18 3.2
19 2.1
20-24 2
25-29 1.2
30-34 1
35-39 0.9
40-44 0.7
45-49 0.7
50-54 0.7
55-59 0.8
60-64 1
65-69 1.2 Isolating the data you want helps.
70-74 1.8
75-79 2.9
80-84 5.2
85 + 7.9
 Driver fatalities

7.9
8

7 6.8
16 -
17
18
6
19
5.2 20-24
25-29
5
30-34
35-39

4 40-44
45-49
3.2 3.2 50-54
2.9 55-59
3
60-64
2.1 65-69
2
2 1.8 70-74
75-79
1.2 1.2
1 1 80-84
0.9 0.8
1 0.7 0.7 0.7 85 +

0
16 - 17 18 19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79 80-84 85 +

A chart is better. This chart has unnecessary color and 3-D. All you see is the color, not the data.
 Driver safety varies with age
85 +
80-84
75-79
70-74
65-69
60-64
Driver age (yrs)

55-59
50-54
45-49
40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
19
18
17
16 -

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Fatality rate per 100 million miles traveled

This is a good chart. The title tells the story and the data is clear of “chartjunk”
 0.1% precision
. .
. . .
. .

5% precision

Make sure the reader can

see the data.
FAT DOTS !
 tie points

fit model

Curved lines are fine if you are fitting the data to a model. If the
purpose is simply to tie points together, use straight lines.
Lab Report Style Guide

http://me.umn.edu/education/undergraduate/writing.shtml