Lab reports take a significant position among the tasks that students mark as demanding and challenging. Students require analytical skills and a volume amount of time to create a compelling and impressive lab report. Moreover, lab reports assume working on experiments and calculations. It is not a wonder that some students fail to try to complete such complicated tasks by themselves and opt for professional support, asking, “Please, write my report online.” Thanks to practical assistance from homework help services completing lab reports turn from nightmares to dreams.

When you imagine a perfectly written lab report, you beforehand think about central sections representing data effectively. Therefore, you think about the lab report’s structure and imagine particular sections. The art of arranging lab reports defines the result you get, which means the level of a mark your teacher would score. A well-structured lab report allows providing work effectively. 

What is a lab report?

Lab reports are written to expose the results of an experiment usually provided in laboratory conditions and to prove or disapprove the hypothesis. To create a compelling and meaningful lab report, students require knowing the subject and analyzing and evaluating data. Writing a good lab report means researching and evaluating loads of data and conducting an experiment in a laboratory. To make a lab report perfect, an author should connect the purpose and the outcome of an experiment. Moreover, lab reports require providing additional calculations, evaluations, and investigations, including error analysis.

Below you will find the core elements of a lab report:

Title

When readers look at your lab report for the first time, they need to get a clear idea of what is represented in work below. We recommend avoiding “The” as a first world in the title for a lab report. Another function of titles is drawing the attention of readers to your lab report. For example, attention of students who are in search of materials for his or her paper to include into its results of lab experiments. The title presents the content and provides the topic of lab reports without details.

Introduction

This section’s purpose is to introduce an aim of an experiment that would be conducted. It can be formulated as a question or as a hypothesis. Make sure to state a purpose using general words. To let readers get a clear idea of the topic and purpose, the introduction can include the theory and basics of an investigated area. If there were earlier experiments, you could summarize them as well.

Procedure

The Procedure section is the Body section of a lab report. Now it is time to describe the chosen methodology, equipment, and steps completed while conducting an experiment. If needed, you can add tables and charts (it would work for vast amounts of data). Note that the procedure section must contain enough data to clarify what exactly was done to reach the result of the project. When you are writing the procedure section, recall the hypothesis from an Introduction and make sure that an experiment relates to it directly. Note that an effective procedure section has to expose data systematically and be well-structured.

Results

This section can be a part of a Procedure section or a separate block of a lab report. Make sure to add into the Results section enough details about the calculations and measurements, describe the instruments briefly, and present the variety of results after using different equipment. Results must underline the connection between the initial question and the final calculations (evaluations, measurements).

Analysis

Depending on the discipline, this section can be described briefly, as the main amount of data and calculations is done in the procedure section. However, the Analysis section is an essential part of a lab report because it has to prove or disapprove the meaningfulness of the results. The Analysis could be exposed in the form of tables, figures, diagrams, etc. 

There is a significant type of Analysis section that is called Error analysis. This kind of analysis is applied to ensure that results are correct and any errors influence them badly. It is vital to define possible sources of errors and evaluate their impact on an experiment’s results.

Discussion

Another name of the Discussion section could be Summary. There are some questions an author of a lab report has to answer. After evaluating and exposing the results of an experiment, you have to summarize the new experience gained after the projects and answer the questions: was the hypothesis correct, or is there a new hypothesis? Were the aims achieved? Ensure to answer all the questions from instruction from teacher (rubrics, lab manuals, etc.) The Discussion section has to contain suggestions for new investigations or experiments (if possible in the studied subject).

Acknowledgments

If a group of students worked together, this section has to provide information about them. If some of the credits do not fit the References section, these sources could be mentioned in the Acknowledgement section.

References

If you mentioned some other authors or works and used the results of different experiments in your lab report, you have to list them here. There are proper rules of referencing that relate to format and lab report manuals. Check the requirements additionally.

Data (Appendixes)

Lab reports on some disciplines (for example, astronomy) require adding data that officially confirm the process of experiments. For example, original notes, photos, etc. These data are not always necessary in terms of a lab report. It would work better if you specified them with your teacher.

Afterall

We believe these recommendations on how to structure a lab report were useful. Let us underline the essential points of the lab report structure. You have to add into a paper such vital sections as title, introduction, procedure (including methodology and equipment), results, analysis, discussion, acknowledgment, references, and appendixes (optionally). Remember that writing lab reports take time and skills, so be patient with yourself if something seems challenging. Note that qualified help is always near, and you can request professional support from a homework help service anytime you require it. We wish you luck in your studies!