Biol 2080: Ecology in Practice

Tips for Writing Formal Lab Reports

Modified from Bazely (2003) and Stehlik & Thomsen (2011)

Your report should include a title (on a separate page with your name, student
number, course, date, and lab section or TA’s name), abstract, introduction,
methods section, results section, discussion section, and literature cited, as well as
appendices where appropriate. Total length should be approximately 2,000 words,
not including tables, figures, literature cited or appendices. Your report should be
submitted as a .doc, .docx or .pdf file (with embedded text) to Turnitin.

Title: should be concise and should describe the experiment rather than simply
stating “Lab 4”, “Community Properties and Succession”, etc. Optionally, it could
describe the main finding of your experiment, like a newspaper headline.

Abstract (max. 300 words): a brief summary of the purpose, methods, major
findings and significance of the findings. Do not include references. The abstract
should quickly describe the general contents of the report to a reader without
their needing to refer to the main paper.

Introduction (max. 400 words): should review relevant background information

with references, explain the reason for doing the research, and state the
hypotheses or questions being explored. You do not need a separate section for
your purpose; include it in your introduction. Stay on topic.

Methods (max. 300 words): Describe how you did you did your experiment, and
how data were analyzed, in sufficient detail (but no more than is necessary) to
allow others to repeat your work. The materials should not be written as a list;
rather they should be mentioned as you describe what was done. Write in PAST
TENSE. For example, you should write “the plants were identified” or “we
identified the plants,” but NOT “next, identify the plants.” Do not just refer to
the handout.

Results (max 200 words, excluding figures & tables): This section must include
graphs and/or tables AND a written section consisting of full sentences. The
graphs and tables should visually illustrate the major trends in the data. The
written text should describe the key findings and summarize the trends, referring
to the graphs/tables. Raw data should not be included in the results section; put
these in an APPENDIX.
Label all tables, graphs, and figures with a number and a title. Titles should be
placed below a figure and above a table. Include enough information in the title so
that a reader can understand what the figure/table shows without referring to the
main text (after the title you may include a one or two-sentence caption if
necessary). Do not include tables/graphs/figures that you do not reference in the
written portion of your results (“…as shown in Fig. 1”; “see Fig. 2”; etc.). You should
not attempt to interpret the meaning of your results in this section – save that for
the discussion. The results simply tell “what,” NOT “why”.

Report the results of any statistical analyses in the results section as written
statements. Indicate the type of test conducted and the P value. Means should be
listed ± standard error, followed by sample size (n). Example: “The mean height of
tall goldenrod, Solidago altissima (121 ± 8.55 cm, n = 10) was significantly greater
than that of Canada goldenrod, Solidago canadensis (95.5 ± 4.51 cm, n = 10); two
sample t-test, P = 0.02.” The full SPSS output from your analysis should be
included at the end of your report as an appendix.

Discussion & Conclusion (max. 800 words): These can be combined in one section.
This is where you INTERPRET your results (attempt to tell “why”). Begin by
restating the key results, but keep this to a minimum; you are discussing what the
results might mean, not repeating what they are. Compare your results with those
of previously published studies. Are they similar? If not, how might the
discrepancies be explained? Be careful to distinguish factual results from
speculation. Only cite references that are helpful for the interpretation of your
own results (do not include a general literature review). Mention any problems with
how the experiment was carried out and how it might be improved. In a final
paragraph, state the main conclusions that can be drawn from the experiment.

Citing references in the text of your report. In the body of the text,
references to papers by one or two authors should be in full, e.g. Liang and Stehlik
(2009) show blablabla. Or: Blablabla (Liang and Stehlik 2009). If the number of
authors exceeds two, they should be abbreviated using “et al.”; e.g. Campitelli et al.
(2008) show blablabla. Or: Blablabla (Campitelli et al. 2008). If providing more than
one reference in brackets, the order should be chronological with the oldest first
and the most recent last. In the case of two studies from the same year, the order
should be alphabetical. E.g. Blablabla (Zuk 1963; Korpelainen 1998; Stehlik and
Barrett 2005, 2006; Stehlik et al. 2008).”

All references cited in the main text (and only those references) should be
included in “Literature cited.”
Literature cited: References should be in alphabetical order by first author
surname. Follow the format shown below:

Citing articles in scientific journals:

Michaels., D. R., Jr., and V. Smirnov. 1999. Postglacial sea levels on the western
Canadian continental shelf: revisiting Cope's rule. Marine Geology 125:1654-1669.

Citing whole books:

Carlson, L. D., and M. Schmidt, eds. 1999. Global climatic change in the new millennium.
2nd ed. Vol. 1. The coming deluge. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, U.K.

Citing individual articles/chapters in books (if the individual chapters have different
authors than the book):
White, P.S. and S. T. A. Pickett. 1985. Natural disturbance and patch dynamics: An
introduction. Pp. 3-13 in S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds. The Ecology of Natural
Disturbance and Patch Dynamics. Academic Press, San Diego, California, USA.

Citing a webpage (avoid as much as possible; peer-reviewed papers are preferable):

IUCN, Conservation International, and NatureServe. 2004. Global amphibian
assessment. Available at www.globalamphibians.org. Accessed October 15, 2004.

Formatting species names: common (English) names should not be capitalized

unless they occur at the beginning of a sentence or contain proper names. For
example, “red pine” should be in lower case; “European buckthorn” should begin with
a capital E because Europe is a proper name.

Always include the scientific (Latin or Greek) binomial name of a species, in full,
the first time the species is mentioned. Italicize or (if writing by hand) underline
scientific names. The genus should always be capitalized and the specific epithet
should always be in lower case. The second time a scientific name is mentioned the
genus can be abbreviated if there is no possibility of confusion (otherwise the full
name must be used). Example: “The common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, is a
hermaphroditic perennial native to Southern Ontario. The leaves of A. syriaca are
toxic to cattle.”

Optionally, you may only use scientific names and avoid including common names.
Where space is limited (as in a table) you should use scientific names.