How to write a lab report?

by Elzbieta Petelenz
2006/10/18
How to write a lab report?
Introduction

Briefly set up the background – what was the exercise about?

• What was the object of your experiment? (What were you working on?) Was it a live
organism (e.g. Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe)? Or was it
an in vitro experiment (e.g. on purified enzymes)?
• What was the subject of your investigation (e.g. protein content in different yeast
species or kinetic constants for different enzymes)? What did you want to find out
about the object? E.g. what did you want to learn about proteins in yeast or enzyme
kinetic constants?
• Why is it important?
• What methods were used? (How did you want to answer your questions?) E.g. using
gel electrophoresis – describe shortly the principles of the methods you used.

Materials and methods

Here you should describe the methods more in detail.

• What were the most important steps?
• What was the purpose of each of them?
Don’t go too much into details. Don’t rewrite the protocol – the assistants know it already,
what they want to find out is how much you understood. So describe briefly, in your own
words, what you did. Chose what you think is important and omit the rest.

Optional: here you can write down the equipment and chemicals used. However it is usually
not necessary. If you decide to write that after all, make a complete list (so that someone else
can repeat your experiment based on your report). Don’t randomly write down some of the
equipment and/or chemicals and leave the rest unmentioned – it has no sense.

If you write only about the methods, you can also include this part in the introduction. In that
case put it at the end.

Results

Here you should write down all the values you obtained and all the calculations you did on
them. Write them in order, so that it is clear what you did in each step and where do the
values come from. For every calculated value: first write the equation (with explanations if
needed), then the input values (including units!) and finally the result. You shouldn’t just
write some number without explaining where it came from. Show all your calculations, step
by step.

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 How to write a lab report?
by Elzbieta Petelenz
2006/10/18
Example:

Protein content in yeast cells

M Mp = 7.0 mg
P= p
Mt Mt = 12.6 mg
P – protein content
7.0mg
Mp – total mass of proteins P= ≈ 56 %
12 .6mg
Mt – total mass of cells

If you are doing a long sequence of calculations, it’s a good idea to make the partial results
well visible (e.g. underline) and make the final result extra visible (e.g. bold).

Writing results in tables is a convenient way of presenting them – it puts them in a logical
order and makes them easy to read. Tables are easier to read when information is put in
columns, not in rows.

In this part you should also include pictures (e.g. of gels) if you have any. You can also put
your own schemes and drawings, if you think they help in explaining what you had done.

Graphs are another good way of presenting data. Be sure to write the title of the graph (short
but informative and precise) and mark what is on the axis (including units!). If there is more
than one data series, you should add an informative legend.

All these ways of presenting data (tables, graphs, pictures) should be marked properly (e.g.
Table 2: Protein concentrations, Figure 1: BSA standard curve, Figure 2: Polyacrylamide gel
stained with Coomassie Blue). They should also be commented in the text (e.g. Table 1 shows
protein concentrations, which were used to make the standard curve, shown in Figure 1).

Discussion

In this part you comment on the obtained values. Do they seem reasonable? Why do you think
so? Quote literature to justify your opinion. If they seem strange, first check the appropriate
calculations. If they are correct, try to explain why you got such a value. Look for hints in the
protocol (which stages are especially sensitive to errors), equations used (which values
influence the result most) and literature (maybe there are some other effects which you didn’t
know about).

References

Here you should write all the sources of information which you used in your report: articles,
books, websites, unpublished data and oral information. Name them precisely, so that
someone else can also find them.

Examples:
1. Klipp E. et al. (2005) Integrative model of the response of yeast to osmotic shock.
Nature Biotech. 23: 975-82
2. Alberts et al., Essential Cell Biology, Garland Science 2nd ed.
3. http://www.yeastgenome.org/

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 How to write a lab report?
by Elzbieta Petelenz
2006/10/18
4. Pirkov I., unpublished data
5. Petelenz E., oral information

Before handing in your report

• Re-read it! Does it all make sense?

• Make sure you have included all the results.
• Check all the calculations once more (including units!).

Some suggestions

Below are some suggestions which will help you and others (e.g. assistants ) in handling
your report.

• Number the pages

• Include a header with your name, group number, date etc.
• Use line spacing 1.5 (not single) – it’s easier to read and to write comments
• Divide the text in paragraphs
• Leave some margins for comments
• Use standard font designs (Arial, Times New Roman etc, not Freestyle script etc),
not smaller than 12
• Use a spell-check (but be careful: check every change carefully, not all of them are
really correct)