Download - 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