Lab Report Writing Process

The lab report is an important part of any university education. But most of the students take it lightly. Simply copying and pasting shouldn't be the way. Here I am giving some general suggestions for writing a standard lab report. Here it should be kept in mind that standard may vary and you have to write your lab report according to the requirements of the lab.

• Preparation: The students generally do not read the lab sheet or experiment topic before a lab. This is a very bad practice. Try to read about the topic and the lab sheet. If possible, search youtube and see the experimental process. Also search about the experimental result, graph, etc. Suppose in an experiment, the theoretical graph is linear and the result is 1.2. Note down them. You can write a good discussion if you know them. Most of the times you have to submit your report on lab day. So save your time by writing the "unexperimental " thing like objective, figure, apparatus, table, etc at home.
• Cover letter: A good cover letter increases the beauty of the lab report. So make a good cover letter, print it and make copy. Sometimes teachers want a specific format. In this case, follow them.
• Apparatus: Specify the apparatus. Try to mention the range of the apparatus beside them like pressure gauge(0-1MPa) etc.
• The points usually should be included are objective, apparatus, figure, Data, Sample Calculation, Graph, result & discussion. This may vary.
• Use the word "Figure" below a figure and give a clear name.
• Graph: Use the word figure below the graph. Give a proper name. Suppose you are plotting pressure vs time. The title can be Variation of pressure with time." A title like "Pressure vs time" isn't a good choice.
• Discussion: Discussion is the most important part of any lab report. It can be written in many ways. I am showing the format I used to follow. At first the objective, then experimental discussion, then theoretical discussion, comparison using graph and numerical values and way to eliminate them. Let me break down. Suppose the experiment was to find cd over a rectangular plate and let cd vs angle is linear. So discussion can be started by," In this experiment, the cd of a rectangular plate has been observed." this is the objective part. Then," From observation 1, the cd value has been found 1.5. Theoretically, the value is 1.6. So there has been about 5% error. From figure 1, the variation of cd with angle has been found parabolic, which is theoretically linear.  So there has been some error in the experiment." This is the experimental, theoretical and comparison part. Then," The error might arise for some reasons, such as....". This is the error discussion part. Then you can add some application of the experiment.
• Try to use a separate notebook for the lab. Take the important parts of Sir's lecture. You can add them in your discussion.