Procedure for Writing a Physics Lab Report

The standard everyday lab report consists of the following sections.  Note that all lab reports may not have every section, but it is a good idea to include all of these sections (even if you write "not required").   Note also that certain things change from time to time.  A truly formal lab report must have a separate title page, but in general this is wasteful.  Formal lab reports in this class do not require a separate title page.

Suggestion:

Make a template in your word processor: a document that just contains the following headings.  Doing so will help you to get all of the sections into your lab report, and will prevent you from making costly mistakes.

Informal Lab Report

Title of Lab
Purpose
Data
Analysis and Graphs
Conclusion

Formal Lab Report


Title of Lab Activity
Purpose
Materials and Apparatus
Procedure
Data and Observations
Analysis
Graphs
Sample Calculations
Conclusion

Expectations:

Title:

The title should contain the name of the experiment performed, the date the experiment was performed, the names of all of the people who contributed to the lab report and the name of the instructor of the lab.  It is important that the names of all the people who contributed to the lab report be listed.  Conversely, if a student did not contribute to the writing or analysis of the lab their name should not appear on the title page or in the title section.

Purpose:

The purpose is a short one or two sentence statement indicating why you are in the lab.   State your goal in performing the lab and what you expect to learn from the lab.   A purpose begins, "The purpose of this lab is to..."

Materials and Apparatus:

This is a list of all of the materials that are required to perform the lab.  This is both a list for yourself and for the reader of the lab report.  This should provide enough information that the lab instructor can pull the materials from the shelf to set up the lab and provide you with the materials necessary.  It is not necessary to indicate exact amounts as in "2.12323 meters twine."  Simply stating "twine" is sufficient.

Procedure:

The procedure is one of the top three important sections in the lab report.  The procedure can be written in either paragraph style (preferable) or it can be written in bullet style (not-quite-so-preferable)-but either is considered correct.  The procedure may include diagrams or other helpful information that will make the lab easier to perform.  The procedure should be complete enough that an arbitrary person could read your procedure and could perform the lab as you did. DO NOT copy the procedure from the book or lab manual.  Write the procedure in your own words and add notes and diagrams as necessary.

Data and Observations:

Typically, before the lab, you draw up the data table in which you will record your data.   The lab report should contain a neater version of youractual data table but should reference the actual data table as an appendix.

Observations, on the other hand, are not usually as well preconceived.  As you go through a lab, make notes and observations that might prove to be important later when the report is being generated.  If changes are made in the lab, record them and if certain elements of the lab are not performed, record the differences.  Observations are not required to be present in the final lab report, but they make the process of writing the lab much easier.

Analysis:

Analysis is the meat of the lab report. This is what science is; this is the heart of science.  Quite simply the analysis is everything that you do between data collection and the writing of the conclusion.  The analysis is the thought process that takes you from observation to brilliant insight.  Most of the time the analysis is a lot of little steps that you go through mentally.  It is important that you write these steps down.

Graphs:

Analysis and graphs are listed as two separate sections when in fact they are part of a larger whole.  Graphs are not an analysis.  Graphs are a tool, much as a calculator.  They allow you represent a lot of data in a very short space.   Graphs allow you to analyze data in interesting ways, but graphs do not make an analysis.

Sample Calculations:

This is a short section that shows a sample of every calculation that you carried out by hand.  In essence this is a list of equations, but it goes one step further as it shows one example of every equation being used. Remember just one example of every equation used is to be shown.

Conclusion:

This is the second most important part of the lab.  This is where you sum it all up.   It needs to be good.  The conclusion will include your results, any relationships (or equations) that you have discovered.  Indicate how accurate your results are and explain any discrepancies.   Make the lab instructor believes that you understand.

Grading:

Grading is a very subjective process.  Every lab has different requirements and different expectations, but in general the following weights apply to how the sections count.

Do keep in mind that these are approximate values and could change for any given lab report.