Lab reports are similar to scientific papers and might be the first step you take! There are eight sections to a lab report. Each are described below with tips. Thank you to Jennifer Simms of the Indiana University Bloomington Library, Renee Romero of the University of California, Los Angeles Library, and the book Writing in the Biological Sciences for providing source material!
Want to see a successful lab report? Check out this Sample Lab Report from Penn State University Park.
Titles should be succinct, clear, and complete.
The Materials and Methods describes the approach you took to conduct your experiment. A trained scientist should be able to repeat your experiment based on the information you provide. This section should include the following elements:
Results presents the results of your experiments. While this section describes experiment results in text, it can include:
Abstracts contain the following elements: question/purpose, experimental approach, results, conclusion answer/implication, may contain short background and significance.
The Discussion section is the most important part of the scientific paper. Here, the researcher discloses what works, what did not work, and other analysis of the experiment and its findings. The Discussion section is typically organized as follows:
Stumped about what to write? Consider the following guiding questions:
When it doubt, write it out! And ask for help :)
The Introduction should interest your audience and provide context/background information. Should contain:
References are the external resources you used during your experiment. For example, if you used another paper to model your research, you need to cite that paper. Anything outside of your own research must be cited!
The Conclusion wraps everything up and provides a concise summary of the experiment.
Some lab reports include optional sections. They may include, but are not limited to: