Undergraduate lab report writing

Undergraduate lab report writing

By Jenni & Caitlin

“Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.” —Adam Savage, MythBusters

This presentation’s “procedure”

▪ Discuss the general differences/commonalities between writing in the humanities and writing in the life sciences

▪ Delve into IMRaD–The general format almost all scientific writing

follows, in one way or another

General style differences

The Humanities The Life Sciences • Expressing thoughts/ideas • Informing others of hypotheses/results

• General information • Very specific

• Focus is on individual • Focus is on the material

• General audience (a lay person) • Audience of knowledgeable peers (“scientists” in the same field)

• Expressive, eloquent, sometimes open to interpretation

• Factual, concise, no ambiguity (almost “blunt”)

• Organization can vary • Organization tends to be formulaic (some variation of IMRaD, usually)

• Creative license (metaphors, analogies, rhetorical questions, etc.)

• Very, very, very rarely, if ever, will you use any sort of creative license in scientific writing

Common denominators

▪ Critical reading of prompt/assignment

▪ Audience identification

▪ Use of models (examples)

Critical reading of prompt/assignment

▪ Highlight or circle key words/phrases

▪ Identify citation style

▪ Note the due date(!)

Audience identification

▪ Undergraduate lab report

–TA is NOT the audience!!!!!

–Audience is your peers

–Peers should be able to replicate the experiment using your report

Use of examples

▪ Sample lab reports–Sometimes in the back

of the lab manual

▪ Journal articles–Find a flagship journal

for the discipline at library.tamu.edu

–Search under “e-Journals” or “e-databases”

Use of examples: tone identification

▪ Identify subjective/informal language in your paper– Compare/contrast to model

▪ Highlight key words in the model– Subheadings, transition words, etc.

▪ Identify emphasis on actor or action in the model– Active or passive voice

– First-/second- or third-person

IMRaD

▪ Introduction

▪ Methods/Materials (procedure)

▪ Results

(and)

▪ Discussion

▪ Basic, fundamental organization for scientific paper or lab report

– Can vary based on discipline, type of scientific paper, etc.

▪ Sometimes results and discussion are grouped together

▪ Sometimes an abstract is included before the introduction

The abstract(See Ch. 14 in Scientific Writing and Communication, Angelika H. Hofmann)

▪ At undergraduate level, usually not required

▪ Will vary based on prof, TA, discipline, assignment, alignment of the planets, etc.

▪ However, usually includes:

– Question/purpose

– Methods/materials (experimental approach)

– Results/Discussion

– Conclusion (answer)/Implication

The introductionquestions to ask yourself while writing/revising

▪ What is the purpose/hypothesis of the experiment?

▪ Background of the concept?

▪ Why is this experiment important?

▪ What principle theory/concept is the experiment exploring?

▪ Verb tense?

The methods/materials (procedure)questions to ask

▪ Is it chronological?

▪ Is it specific enough that it can be replicated step-by-step?

– Ex. “poured some” vs. “slowly poured 3.0 mL”

▪ Verb tense?

The resultsquestions to ask

▪ Is it concise/pertinent?

▪ Is it only the results of the experiment? (Save the discussion for the Discussion section.)

▪ Do you need tables/figures?

– Are they labeled/referenced?

– Ex. “See Figure 1,” “As shown in Figure 1,” “(Figure 1),” etc.

The discussionquestions to ask

▪ Was the purpose achieved? Hypothesis supported/disproven?

▪ What do the results mean?

▪ Did you discuss errors/possible errors and sources?

▪ How do you avoid those errors in the future?

▪ What would you do differently? (Hints to help the experiment go more smoothly if repeated.)

Recap

▪ Critically examine the prompt, syllabus, or rubric

▪ Identify the audience

▪ Use models/examples

▪ Look for appropriate/consistent formatting

▪ Check verb tense

REMEMBER…

▪ Lab report standards vary by discipline and TA

▪ Style guidelines differ

▪ Professors’ requirements differ

▪ In other words, this presentation is over general guidelines!

Image references

▪ www.mentalfloss.com▪ Sciencejokes.tumblr.com