Successful Lab Reports

For a large number of people, their experience with lab reports and scientific documents will be limited to a lab or two they are required to take in college for a general education credit. Skills learned in these classes will most likely be quickly forgotten and never used again. However, for those that work in a scientific field, writing lab reports is a fundamental skill that will be used time and time again. Lab reports can be used to express many different types of data and prove a variety of hypothesizes in different scientific disciplines, but the general formula for writing all reports stays consistent across the board. To write a successful lab report, the information must be presented in a clear and readable manner. It is important …show more content…
Lab reports can be very long, with the bulk of the length in raw data. All this data can seem redundant and hard to analyze, however without this data, the lab report would be virtually useless. The data will either prove or disprove the hypothesis stated in the beginning of the lab. Without the data to draw conclusions from, there would be no use for the lab and whatever it was intended to show, could not be proven. Lab reports are usually read by others in a similar field, although the report should be written in a manner than anyone, regardless of background, can understand. Tables are widely used to organize this information. “An easy to read and well organized data table is a wonderful thing to include in papers and reports. To that end, keep in mind that a good table i) conveys a lot of information and ii) is easy to read” (Gustavus). In addition to tables, graphs can be used to easily and quickly show trends in data. This allows nearly anyone to draw at least a basic conclusion, such as an upward trend in pH or an equivalence point, even if that person might not know what is causing it or what it