Writing a Technical Lab Report - Telemark University Collegehome.hit.no/~hansha/documents/lab/Writing a Technical … · · 2016-02-29Writing a Technical Lab Report This Example

UniversityCollegeofSoutheastNorway

http://home.hit.no/~hansha

HowToWriteaTechnicalLabReport–withPracticalExamples

2016.02.29–Hans-PetterHalvorsen

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WritingaTechnicalLabReport

TipsandTricksThisdocumentdescribestipsandtricksforcreatingawell-writtentechnicalLabWorkReport.Suchareportshouldatleastinclude:Titlepage(Title,Name,StudentNumber),TableofContents,Introduction,ProblemDescription,Results,DiscussionsandaConclusion(+Appendicesifnecessary).

Whenyouareworkingwithlabwork,youhaveallresourcesavailable,books,tutorials,otherstudents,examplecode,theteacher,etc.Sobeabletodoallthetasksandgetthe“correct”answersistobe“expected”.ThenyoucannotexpecttogetagradebetterthanC.ButCisactuallyagoodgrade,somanyshouldbesatisfiedwiththat.ThegradeCistheaveragegradethatmoststudentsget.

Tomakethelittleextratostandoutisimportant.Sohowdoyoudothat?Youmustmakeanextraeffortwhenyouareworkingwiththereport.Inadditionyourapplication/sourcecode(ifthat’spartofthelabwork)shouldhaveagoodstructureand“dothelittleextra”thatmakesitoutstanding.TheUserInterface/HMIshouldofcoursebeclearandintuitive.Abadwrittenprogramislikeareportwithlotsofspellingmistakes,i.e.,itdoesnotlookgood!Neitherdoesittakelongertimetostructureyourcodeproperly,probablyyouwillsavetimebecauseitwillleadtofewererrors,easiertomaintain,findbugs,etc.

WritingaTechnicalLabReportislikewritingajobapplication!Itshouldbeinterestingandappealtothereader.Inadditionthetechnicalcontentsinthereportshouldbeofhighqualityofcourse.Itisthesamehere,evenifyouhavethetechnicalqualitiestogetthejob,itdoesnothelpifyoudon’tgettothejobinterviewbecauseofabadjobapplication.

GradesHereisashortdescriptionofthedifferentgradesused.

Symbol Description General,qualitativedescriptionofvaluationcriteriaA

Excellent

Anexcellentperformance,clearlyoutstanding.Thecandidatedemonstratesexcellentjudgmentandahighdegreeofindependentthinking.

Averygoodperformance.Thecandidatedemonstratessoundjudgmentandaverygood

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B Verygood degreeofindependentthinking.C

Good

Agoodperformanceinmostareas.Thecandidatedemonstratesareasonabledegreeofjudgmentandindependentthinkinginthemostimportantareas.

D

Satisfactory

Asatisfactoryperformance,butwithsignificantshortcomings.Thecandidatedemonstratesalimiteddegreeofjudgmentandindependentthinking.

E

Sufficient

Aperformancethatmeetstheminimumcriteria,butnomore.Thecandidatedemonstratesaverylimiteddegreeofjudgmentandindependentthinking.

F

Fail

Aperformancethatdoesnotmeettheminimumacademiccriteria.Thecandidatedemonstratesanabsenceofbothjudgmentandindependentthinking.

Thewholescaleisused(A-F).ThegradeCisgivenforanaveragestudentperformance.ThismeansCisagoodgrade!Thiswillbetheguidelineforusingthescale.ThegradeAshouldbeanexcellentperformancethatisclearlyoutstanding.ThegradeAisusedtoseparatetheperformancesthatstandsout,anditwillweusedrelativelyseldom.

ChecklistHereisashortchecklistyoucanusewhenwritingaTechnicalLabReport:

• Thereportisclearlyandlogicallystructuredandorganized• Introduction–describestheaimsoftheworktogetherwithlimitations

andassumptions.• Results-TheResultsarediscussed• Conclusion-TheConclusionsarewellgrounded• LiteratureReferencesarecitiedinthereport+correctsyntax(2different

standards;HarvardorVancouver,selectoneandsticktoit!)+ReferenceList

• Fewspellingmistakes• AllFiguresandTablesarenumberedandhavedescriptivecaptions.It’s

alsolooksnicerifyoucentertheFigures• Youneedtorefertosourceswhentakingfigures/picturesfromother

sources(Referencing)• UseUnitswhendealingwithnumbersandcalculations.Unitsshouldalso

beshowninplots,etc.• Figurenumbering:BelowFigure,Tablenumbering:AboveTable!• EquationNumbering.Allequationsneedanequationnumber.Equation

numbersshallberightaligned.• AllFiguresandTablesarereferencedinthetext

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• Allcurves(lines)ofplots(diagrams)arelabeledandaxisandscalingareshown

• Screenshotsshouldbegood.Totakeascreenshotofaspecificregionisoftenbetterthatalargeimagewithlotsofunnecessaryinformation.Usingagoodtoolforscreencaptureisimportant(e.g.SnagIt,etc.)!

• SourceCode:Justshowingsmallpartsofthecode(whichyouexplaininthetext)areoftenbetterthanalongcodelist.Cut-outwhatisimportant–youdon’talwaysneedtoshowthewholeprogramwithasmallcodepartinside

• Figures/Plotsshouldbeclearandeasy• Software/SourceCodeiswelldocumented,well-structuredandlook

nice.Usestraightlines,etc.• HardwareandEquipmentthatareusedintheLabWorkiswell

documented• Print-out–Thereportshouldalsobereadableinblackandwhiteprint-

out,i.e.,don’trefertoyellow,purple,etc.inthereport.Makesureyoureadthroughthereportafteryouprintit!Generatedtextlike“Referenceismissing”doesnotlookgood!

• Thereportisdeliveredwithinthedeadline

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LiteratureReferencesWhyshouldyounameyoursources?

• Givecredittotheoriginalauthor• Allowotherstoreadwhatyouhaveread

– Followup–thereadercangetmoreinformation– Qualitycontrol–haveyouusedtheinformationcorrectly?

• Placeyourworkinawidercontext• Plagiarism-Publishingotherpeople’sworkasyourownis

illegal/cheatingandyoudon’tlearnanything!

Quotations

Quotationsaredoneasfollows:

• Shortquotes(upto3lines):usequotationmarks””• Longerquotes(morethan3lines):newparagraph,indented

HowtoCiteSources

HerearesomeExamples:

• Refertotheminthetext• CreateaReferencelist(literaturelist)attheendofyourdocument

Examples:

• AccordingtoMurray(2002)…• Otherstudieshavefoundsimilarresults(SmithandJones,2000,Lieetal.,

2003)

2differentstandards;HarvardorVancouver,selectoneandsticktoit!

Harvard

• Authorandyearofpublicationinthetext

Example:

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AccordingtoMurray(2002)

Alphabeticalreferencelist

• Alphabeticalbyauthor(orbytitleifnoauthor)

Example:

Murray,R.(2002)HowtoWriteaThesis.Maidenhead:OpenUniversityPress.

Vancouver

• Referencesnumberedinthetext

Example:

Noteverythesishasaliteraturereview[1]

• Numericalreferencelistinthesameorderasinthetext

Example:

[1]MurrayR.Howtowriteathesis.Maidenhead:OpenUniversityPress,2002;p.101.

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ScreenShotsScreenshotsshouldbegood.Totakeascreenshotofaspecificregionisoftenbetterthatalargeimagewithlotsofunnecessaryinformation.

Usingagoodtoolforscreencaptureisalsoveryimportant(e.g.SnagIt,etc.)!Don’tusethebuiltin“PrintScreen”functionalityinwindows.Therearelotsoffreeware/shareware/opensourcetoolsavailableforthispurpose.

Examples:

Inthisexampleyoushallexplainwhereyoufindacertaintool:

Probablythisisabetterway:

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Orthisway?

IfyouuseaScreenShoottooltheyhavefunctionalityforcreatingcircles,etc.onyourscreenshots.

BadeExample:

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Better:

Evenbetter?

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Sometimesitisbesttocut-offjustyourcode-orpartofyourcode.

SourceCodeJustshowingsmallpartsofthecode(whichyouexplaininthetext)areoftenbetterthanalongcodelisting.Cutoutwhatisimportant–youdon’talwaysneedtoshowthewholeprogramwithasmallcodepartinside.Youcanputsourcecodeinyourreport,butnottoomuch.

Software/SourceCodeshouldbewelldocumented,wellstructuredandlooknice.Usestraightlines,indents,etc.

Examples:

Thisexampleisprobablynotsogoodifthepurposeistoshowyourcode:

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ThisExampleisprobablybetterifyouwanttoshowyourcode:

Thisexamplekeepsthefocusonthecodeandnotalltheotherinformation.Inthiscaseitiseasytoexplainandreferthecodeinthetextusingthelinenumbers.Thetextalsohascolorcodeswhichmakeiteasiertoread.

Another(good)example:

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% This is my code … K = 1, T = 3; H = sys_order(K,T) Figure(1) bode(H) …

Thecodeiswritteninsidea“box”withadifferentbackgroundcolorandFont.“CourierNew”isagoodfonttouseincodelisting.

Rememberwhat’smaylookgoodonacomputerscreen,maynotlookgoodonapieceofpaper.

Clean-upyourCode

Makesureyouclean-upandstructureyourcode.Makestraightlines,indents,etc.

BadExample:

Better:

Itdoesnottakemuchtimetoclean-upandstructureyourcodeanditlooksmuchbetter,itiseasiertoreadandunderstand.InLabVIEWthecodeshouldflowfromlefttoright.

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SpellingMakesureyourreporthasfewspellingmistakes.Usethebuilt-incapabilitiesinyourWordProcessor.

Makesureyouspellrightwhenwritingcompanynames,Softwarenames,etc.

Example:

TheLabVIEWsoftwareisspelledLabVIEW–notlabview,Labview,LABview,LabView,etc.

SubmissionIfyouhand-inthereportelectronically,youshouldalwayscreateaPDFfile!Ifyouhand-inaPDFfileyoucanbesureeverybodycanopenandreadit.Theformatting,layout,etc.inthedocumentwillalsobeexactlythesame.TherearelotsoffreetoolsthatcancreatePDFfilesandMSWordhavebuilt-infunctionalityforcreatingPDFfiles.

PitfallsSometasksaremoreimportantthanothersintheassignment.Thetasksinthebeginningareusuallyintroductiontasktomakeyougettingstarted.Normallyyouwillindirectlyusetheresultsfromthesetasksinlatertasks.Themostimportanttasksareusuallyintheend.

Usetheadvantagethatyouworkinagroupinagoodway,onecodingandtwowatchingoneachsideisnotagoodlearningprocess.Everybodyshoulddosomecodingtogetitintoyourfingertips!Youallneedmorepracticeinprogramming.

Everybodyneedstoinstallthenecessarysoftwareontheirownpersonalcomputers!

BelowIwillusedifferentexamplesfrompreviousstudentreportsasexamplesinordertoexplainwhatyoushoulddoornot.

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Report

Hereisalistwithpitfallsanaveragestudentdoeswhenwritingastandardtechnicallabreport.

→Thereportshouldbeappealingtothereader!Goodstructureandlayout.Correctuseoffonts,Nospellingmistakes,etc.Makeyourreportspecialandinterestingtoread–remembertheteachershallperhapsreadthrough20-30reports!(Itisthesamewhenyouaregoingtoapplyforjobs!)

→MakesuretoaddyourstudentnumberontheFrontpage/titlepage(togetherwithyournameofcourse)

→Makesureyoureadthroughthereportafteryouprintit!Generatedtextlike“Referenceismissing”or“Error!Bookmarknotdefined”doesnotlookgood!

→Spelling!Howdowetype“LabVIEW”?“LabView”,“LABVIEW”,“LabVIEW”,“..”?–Atleasttypeitinthesamewayintheentirereport!

→Youcannotjustshowafigureoranequationwithoutsometextexplainingit!

→Itisnotnormaltouseadotattheendofasentenceinheaders

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Andwhyhastheheader1.1moreindentingthan1.1.1?

→Equations.Equationsshouldbecentered.Ifyoudecidetouseequationnumbering,useitproperly!MakealsosurethattheFontlooknice.

Theformulasshouldbecentered.Ifyoudecidetouseequationnumbering,itshouldbeintherightmargin(andnodots…).

→Formulas.Makesuretheylooknice!Formulasusuallyhaveaspecialfont.UsetheEquationEditorinWord,etc.Formulas/Equationsshouldbecentered

BadExample(Matricesshouldbeinsquarebrackets,notnormaltouse*,etc.inequations…):

BadExample2(whatkindoffonthavebeenusedhere???):

AndusethesameFont,fontsize,etc.foralloftheformulasinthereport!

Anotherbadexample:

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Thisdoesn’tlooknice!DifferentkindsofFontshavebeenused.Theequationshouldalsohavebeenonanewline(centered).Andinaddition,makesurethespellingiscorrect(“watertank”not“watertang”).

AnotherexampleBadexample:

Whatkindsoftoolshavebeenusedtocreatethis?IfyouuseMSWord,ithasbuiltintoolsforcreatingsuchequations.

→Keepgoodstructureandacleanlayoutinthereport.Thisisabadexample:

→Makesureheadersandfootersarecorrectaccordingtowhichchapteryouarein

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→AConclusionisalwaysneededinaTechnicalReport.Hereyoushallsummarizeyourresultsanddrawconclusions–nothowmuchyouhavelearned,etc.Badexamples:

“Ihavelearnedmuchdoingthisassignment”

“Thiswasveryuseful,andIwillneedthiswhenIgetajob”

Anotherbadexample:

“FromthisLab,weunderstandtheKalmanFiltermuchmoreandhowtoimplementitinLabVIEWwhichalsomakeusmuchbettertouseLabVIEW.WealsolearnedhowtodesignafeedforwardcontrollertocombinewithatraditionalPIDcontrollerandbycomparison,wehavebetterunderstandingthattheusageofKalmanFilterandfeedforwardcontroller.”

→Focusonyourresults,notjustlistupwhatyouhavedoneorhowmuchyouhavelearnedbydoingthis,etc.-becausethisisnotrelevant!!

→TableText:Figuretextshouldbebelowthefigure,buttabletextshallbeabovethetable!!

Thisshouldbeknown!Itdoesnotlookgoodwhendoingthesebasicmistakes!

MakealsosurethatthewholereportisshowninthePDFversion:

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Thecolumntotherightisnotshowncorrectly.

→Figures.Makesurethefiguresareclear.

Thisishardtoread:

Makethefigurelarger!Orfocusonlyonaspecialpartofit.Totakeascreenshotofaspecificregionisoftenbetterthatalargeimagewithlotsofunnecessaryinformation.Makealsosuretouseapropertoolforthejob!Alotsofgoodscreencapturetoolsexists!

→ListofFigureshasnointerest–shouldbeomitted(especiallyforashortreport).

→Fontsize-usethesamefontsize(forthebodytext)intheentirelyreport

→Referencingshouldbedoneproperly.

→“Apicturesaysmorethanathousandword”theysay–stillyoucanjustshowapicturewithoutnotext,explanations,discussion,etc.!!

→CreategoodFigures.

BadExample:Thisfigureissupposedtoshowtheresultsfromsomesimulations:

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Itisalmostimpossibletogetinformationaboutthesimulationresultsinthisfigure.Itisindistinct,andyoucanhardlyseethetextintheplots,etc.Itisalsoinblack&white.Thefigurealsotriestogivetoomuchinformationinonefigure.Focusonwhat’simportant,andshowonlythat.

→Colorsvs.Black&WhiteinFigures,Plots,etc.Plotscanlookgreatonthescreeninbeautifulcolors,butifyouprintitoutinblack&white,itmightnotlooksogood!Itishardtoseethedifferencebetweentwolinesinablack&whitefigureifyouusethesamelinewidthandsametypeofline(theonlydifferenceisthecolor).

AnotherBadexample:

Thispictureisonlyblack&white(ontheprintedcopy)–itishardtoseewhatitis.Theplotisalsoindistinct,youcannotreadthetext!Thescalingshouldalsobechanged,tomakeitmoreeasiertoseewhat’simportant.

→Showfiguresofwhat’simportant

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BadExample:

Isthisfigureimportanttohaveinthereport?Itgivesmenothing!Inadditionyoucan’tseethetext,etc.

→MakesuretouseaproperScreenCapturetool!!Thefigures/plotsshouldbeclearandreadable!!Focusonwhat’simportantinthefigure!

SourceCode

Hereisalistwithpitfallsanaveragestudentdoeswhencreatingtheapplicationsandhand-inthesourcecode.

→Youdon’tlearnprogrammingbywatchingothersdoit!Youneedtodoityourselfinordertogetitintothefingertips!Lotsofpracticeisthebestwaytolearn!

→Goodstructureofthefilesisimportant!Itshouldbeeasyformetofindtheproperfile

→Goodstructureinthecodeisimportant.

Badexample(“Spaghetti”code):

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Itdoesnottakelongtimetokeepthecodecleanandneat!Thismakesitmucheasiertounderstandanditlooksmuchbettertoo!Note!InLabVIEWtheflowshouldalwaysbefromlefttoright.

Hereisanotherbadexample(“Spaghetti”code):

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Isiteasytounderstandthispieceofcode??(Wiresinalldirections,SubVIwithoutlabeloricons,notusingSubVIs,variablesandconstantswithoutnames,etc.)Debuggingthispieceofcodeisalsoalmostimpossible!

ASubVIhasbeenmade.That’sgreat!–butwhatdoesthissubVIreallydo??Ithasnonamenoranyicon,etc.

→Itisallowedtouse/createSubVIs(functions)!!Thismakesyourcodemorestructured,easiertomaintainandreuse.Itisalsoeasiertodebugthecode.

→Alwaysnameyourvariables

BadExample:

Usealsogooddescriptivenameforyourvariables,andalwaysuseEnglish!

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→Makesurethattheteachercanopenthesourcecode!

Example:

HereItrytoopenaVIthatuseaSubVIcalled“LowPassFilter”–butthefiledoesnotexists!!

→Keepgoodstructureinthecodefiles.GoodandreasonablenamesoftheFilesarealsoimportant!

HerearesomeBadexamples:

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Hans-PetterHalvorsen,M.Sc.

E-mail:[email protected]

Blog:http://home.hit.no/~hansha/

UniversityCollegeofSoutheastNorway

www.usn.no

Writing a Technical Lab Report - Telemark University Collegehome.hit.no/~hansha/documents/lab/Writing a Technical … · · 2016-02-29Writing a Technical Lab Report This Example

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