OIL CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT LAB REPORT OUTLINE (9-12)

Title Page
o Please use the attached template with scoring sheet as your title page. Include a
descriptive title, your name, course, the date, and the name(s) of your partners.

Abstract (9-12)
o The abstract helps readers decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper.
Although it goes at the beginning of your paper, the abstract should not be written until
after you have finished your paper, and it will briefly cover each major aspect of the
paper. The length of your abstract should be kept between 100-200 words. The abstract
will summarize, in one paragraph, the major aspects of the entire paper in the following
prescribed sequence.
Briefly state the background, the question(s) you investigated and the hypothesis (from the

Introduction)
State the experimental design and methods used, but don't include any raw data.
Summarize major findings including key quantitative results, or trends (from the Results
section).
Include a summary of your interpretations and conclusions. (from the Discussion section)

Introduction
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The introduction defines the subject of the report. It must outline the scientific purpose(s)
or objective(s) for the research performed and give the reader sufficient background to
understand the rest of the report. Care should be taken to limit the background to
whatever is pertinent to the experiment. A good introduction will answer several
questions, including the following:

Why was this study performed?

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What knowledge already exists about this subject?

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The answer to this question must review the literature, showing the historical
development of an idea and including the confirmations, conflicts, and gaps in
existing knowledge.

What is the specific purpose of the study?

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Answers to this question may be derived from observations of nature or from the
literature.

The specific hypotheses and experimental design pertinent to investigating the topic
should be described.

Materials and Procedure(s)

o This should be the easiest section to write, but many students misunderstand the purpose.
The objective is to document all specialized materials and general procedures, so that

another individual may use some or all of the methods in another study or judge the
scientific merit of your work. This section answers these two basic questions:

Materials
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Procedure(s)
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(Bulleted List) The materials section is a list of all equipment, reagents (chemicals),
and computer programs that were used to complete the experiment.
Drawings of the apparatus setup should be included in this section if needed. The
materials list must be complete. Indicate how much of each material will be used in
the experiment.
If you plan on arranging some of the equipment into a more complex setup (for
example, if you are going to heat something over a Bunsen burner, you will need a
ring stand, wire gauze, etc.), draw it as well as mention the equipment used.
This section may be written in either paragraphs or numbered steps. Explain the test
design, and allow for pictures and diagrams. The procedure is a detailed statement
(step by step) of how the experiment was performed such that the experiment could
be repeated using your report. Safety precautions that were followed should be stated
in this section. The procedure must be written in the impersonal (3rd person) past
tense:
e.g. We are taking the temperature every 2 minutes. NO
The temperature was taken every 2 minutes. YES

Results
o The function of the results section is to objectively present your key
results, without interpretation, in an orderly and logical sequence using both text and
illustrative (tables and figures).

Data
o The results section always begins with text, reporting the key results and referring to
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your figures and tables as you proceed.

All figures and tables should be numbered separately and referred to in the text by
their number.
Summarize the data from the experiments without discussing their implications.
Clearly display the processed data that are essential to the goal of the experiment,
stating briefly how the original data are processed or analyzed before being
displayed. (Don't display the unprocessed raw datathose should be in your lab
notebook!)
Data should include uncertainty
Organize data into tables, figures, graphs, etc.
Title all figures and tables; include a legend explaining symbols, abbreviations, or
special methods.
Graphs should be formatted correctly with axes, tick marks, units, and descriptive
captions

Calculations
o Show any important calculations clearly and with correct units and significant
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figures
Summaries of the calculations may appear either in the text or in the relevant tables
or figures.
Calculated values should either be to the correct number of significant figures
When appropriate, make a comparison of the processed data with the theoretical
expectation using percent difference or percent error.

Discussion:

Data Analysis
o Discuss the relationship between the variables
o Discuss trends and patterns in the data
o Make reference to tables and figures containing appropriate data.
o Interpret the data; do not restate the results.

Error Analysis
o Discuss all relevant sources of experimental error
o Explain what steps were taken to reduce experimental error
o Based on this analysis of error, the logic that allows you to accept or reject your

Conclusions
o Discuss whether the findings supported the hypothesis
o What was learned from the experiment?
o Stay within scope of the experiment.
o Include suggestions for improving your techniques or design, or clarify areas of

original hypotheses.

doubt for further research.

References
o You must cite all external sources that appear within your paper. Images, quotations, and
any other outside resources presented within your paper should be acknowledged. Use of
APA format is required.

**General Comments on Style

1. Use the metric system of measurements. Abbreviations of units are used without a following
period.
2. Numbers should be written as numerals when they are greater than ten or when they are
associated with measurements; for example, 6 mm or 2 g but two explanations of six factors.
When one list includes numbers over and less than ten, all numbers in the list may be expressed
as numerals; for example, 17 sunfish, 13 bass, and 2 trout. Never start a sentence with numerals.
Spell all numbers beginning sentences.
3. Be sure to divide paragraphs correctly and to use starting and ending sentences that indicate the
purpose of the paragraph. A report or a section of a report should not be one long paragraph.
4. Every sentence must have a subject and a verb.
5. Avoid using the first person, I or we, in writing. Keep your writing impersonal, in the third
person. Instead of saying, "We weighed the frogs and put them in a glass jar," write, "The frogs
were weighed and put in a glass jar."
6. Avoid the use of slang and the overuse of contractions.

7. Be consistent in the use of tense throughout a paragraph--do not switch between past and
present. It is best to use past tense.
8.

Be sure that pronouns refer to antecedents. For example, in the statement, "Sometimes cecropia
caterpillars are in cherry trees but they are hard to find," does "they" refer to caterpillars or
trees?