Biology Department Fall 1996

Lab Reports for Biology

Please follow the instructions given below when writing lab reports for this
course. Don't hesitate to ask if you have questions about form or content. Above all,
remember to write with precision, clarity, and economy.

Writing Your writing should be in full sentences and easily understood. It should
conform to the conventions of standard written English (sentence form, grammar,
spelling, etc.). Good writing is as important in science as it is in other disciplines because
one's ideas have little impact, no matter how important they may be, if they are not well
communicated. While style is mostly an individual characteristic, everyone should strive
for presentations that are easily understandable as well as grammatically correct. One
reason for emphasizing clarity is that writing and thinking are closely related; as many
people have said, "fuzzy writing reflects fuzzy thinking." When people have difficulty
translating their ideas into words, they generally do not know the material as well as they
think.

Style Scientific writing is usually in the past tense because one reports on experiments
that have been completed. The writing should not be too self-referential (e.g., "I ground
up the..."), although you may use the word "I" if doing so makes the writing easier to
read. Writing that is predominantly in the passive voice is deadly to read (e.g., "acorns
were eaten by the squirrels"), so use the active voice as much as possible (e.g., "squirrels
ate the acorns"). Remember: past tense, active voice.

Presentation The first page of a lab report should be a title page with the title of
the report, your name, the date, the course (e.g., Biology 210), and your lab partners.
There should then follow text that is a minimum of two pages and a maximum of five
double-spaced, typewritten pages in length (tables, figures, and references do not count in
this total). All writing should be on only one side of the page, and the reports should be
stapled in the upper left-hand corner. The best length is shorter than the maximum, so
don't expand a shorter report to reach a five-page limit. It is important to write concisely.
The report must be typed or word-processed. Neatness and clarity of presentation are
almost as important as clarity of thought.

Audience Write the report as if you were writing to other students who are taking a
similar course but have not done this experiment. Assume that they have some
familiarity with the subject matter but no expertise. Do not write specifically for the
instructor.
Collaboration You may talk about the lab exercise as much as you like while in
the laboratory. Outside the lab, though, you should not discuss your writing of the report
with anyone else, other than a tutor at the Writing Center. It is essential that you write
your own report. You may and are encouraged to discuss the experiment itself with
anyone at anytime to ensure that you have understood it.

References If you use outside sources, and you should, then cite those sources in the
body of the report and list the references in a literature cited section. Citations should be
made with a standard scientific format (not by footnotes); cite the author and date of
publication only, so that a quick look at the Literature Cited can provide the reader with
all necessary information. When there are more than two authors, simply list the first
author and et al., along with the date. You should not use direct quotations from the
references; paraphrase information and give credit to the source of the idea. The
following are sample citations:

"Garrett (1989) showed that a gene in yeast ..."

"... is found in the urinary bladder of the turtle (Gapp et al., 1990)."
"... as reported recently (Miller, 1986; Pfitsch & Pearcy, 1989)."

You should list a reference for every idea not your own. Plagiarism is more than copying
material word for word; it is also using someone else's ideas or phraseology without
giving reference to the other work or other person. Fortunately, the reference format is so
simple that it is very easy to include references to all the work that one has used
(Williams, 1983). If the idea is not published but is provided by a lab partner or someone
else, give the reference as a personal communication (N. Cutler, pers. comm.). Be aware
of the difficulties that arise when one uses material from another source and changes only
a word here or there without acknowledging the source. Such actions are plagiarism,
even though the statement may not be word-for-word the same as in the original. Just
remember the basic rule: list a reference for every idea or statement not your own.

Format There are four fundamental sections to a scientific report, with

acknowledgments, literature cited, and appendices being additional sections. An
underlined heading should be given at the beginning of each section (optional for the
introduction). Keep in mind that the lab report is parallel to the experimental process (D.
Flynn, 1988):

Experimental Process Lab Report

What is the problem? Introduction
How did I solve the problem? Materials and Methods
What did I find out? Results
What does it mean? Discussion
Introduction - Begin with broad statements, including enough background
information (with reference to outside sources) to set the stage for your
experiment. Then narrow down to your particular study, explaining why it is of
interest. Specify the objectives of the experiment, and make your hypotheses
clear. One to three paragraphs is usually sufficient. Do not regurgitate the lab
handout; write your own introduction.

Materials and Methods (or just Methods) - Summarize briefly the entire
process that was followed and the materials that were used, and then refer to the
lab directions and to any flow charts you have included for the details. Do note
any differences in the procedures you actually followed from what was specified
in the lab directions. Anyone who reads your report should be able to duplicate
the experiment. This section should be a small part of the report, so don't expand
endlessly. Do not include results here.

Results - The data and results are given here in summary form. All results
should be described in a narrative; don't just list measurements. One of the
most common mistakes beginning students make is to omit the narrative in the
results section. The narrative should be more than just saying, "Table 2 shows the
percentage of students with different blood types." You should state and explain
the actual results, e.g., "Most students had type O blood, while the fewest had
type AB (Table 2)." Data must be presented in figures (graphs) and in carefully
planned tables, rather than as raw data. All tables and figures should be titled and
numbered sequentially, and the axes should be well labelled with clearly marked
units. In addition to the title, each table and figure should have a legend (1 to 3
sentences) which explains what is being presented. A sample table and figure are
given at the end of this handout. If the whole thing can be typed, it is a table; if
lines have to be drawn, then it is a figure. Each table and figure should be put on
a separate page and referred to by number in the results narrative. Tables and
figures follow the text of the report (after the literature cited). Sample
calculations may be included in an appendix at the end of the report.

Discussion - In this section the results should be interpreted and their

significance explained. Begin the discussion by interpreting your specific results
and end it more broadly by placing your results in context. Don't declare the
experiment a success or failure; evaluate the results in view of the purpose of the
experiment. If erroneous results were obtained, discuss the results you expected
as well as those you received. You may also compare methods or discuss
difficulties, but if you list sources of error, you should estimate how important
each source of error may be. If you were to do the experiment again, what if
anything, would you do differently? It is inappropriate to include statements such
as "I learned a lot from this experiment..." The discussion is a very important
section; it is your chance to show how well you understand the ideas and
techniques involved and to relate your results to the ideas expressed in outside
sources (the literature cited).
 Acknowledgments - The acknowledgments section is optional. If you wish
to thank someone, such as a lab partner or a tutor at the Writing Center, for help
in understanding the experiment or in organizing the report, you do so here.
Scientists regularly acknowledge others for helping with experiments or
commenting on written drafts.

Literature Cited - List any publications referred to in your paper

alphabetically by first author; do not number them. Every item in your
bibliography should be referred to in the body of your paper, or it shouldn't be
listed at all. If you use information from an intermediary source, you should list
the original reference but should also note the intermediary: "...cited in...". We
will use the following standard forms (some journals use variations of these),
shown in order for: (1) an article with one author, (2) an article with more than
one author, (3) a book, and (4) a chapter from an edited volume:

Reynolds, P.D. 1992. Mantle-mediated shell decollation increases posterior

aperture size in Dentalium rectius Carpenter 1864 (Scaphopoda: Dentaliida).
Veliger 35:26-35.

Gapp, D.A., R.N. Taranto, E.F. Walsh, P.J. Favorito, and Y. Zhang. 1990.
Insulin cells are found in the main and accessory urinary bladders of the painted
turtle, Chrysemys picta. J. Exp. Zool. 254:332-337.

Stokes, D., L. Stokes, and E. Williams. 1991. The Butterfly Book. Little, Brown
and Co., Boston. 96 pp.

Pearcy, R.W., and W.A. Pfitsch. 1994. Consequences of sunflecks for

photosynthesis and growth of forest understory plants. Pages 343-359 in E.D.
Schulze and M.M. Caldwell, editors. Ecophysiology of Photosynthesis. Springer
Verlag, New York.

Appendix - Appendices are optional. You may use them to include your
laboratory handout, sample calculations, sets of raw data, etc.

Final Check The last thing to do before turning a report in is to read it. Correct all
typographical errors and other mistakes, and ensure that you have said what you wanted
to say!

This handout was written by E.H. Williams, Hamilton College, with modifications by D. Gapp, N. Cutler,
and E. Cuebas-Incle.
Sample Table:

________________________________________________________________________

Table 1. Frequency of ABO blood types in Biology 210. The results are given
as both the number and percentage of students with different blood types,
and they are reported for both Monday's lab and for the entire course. The
data are from 1981.
________________________________________________________________________

Blood Monday Lab All Sections

type number percentage number percentage
________________________________________________________________________
A 6 23.1 47 32.9
B 4 15.4 26 18.2
AB 0 0.0 7 4.9
O 16 61.5 63 44.0

Totals 26 100.0 143 100.0

________________________________________________________________________

Sample Figure:

Fig. 1. Mean scores of all squirrels in the training trials. The scores represent the number
of correct (rewarded) choices in the first six artificial caches visited. The trials
took place over a 3-4 week period.