CHE485 CHEMISTRY LAB

GUIDELINE TO LABORATORY REPORT WRITING

The main purpose of writing reports is to communicate exactly what occurred in an experiment or
observation and to clearly discuss the results.

Abstract
Normally, the abstract is the last part of the report written. It is a detailed summary of the whole report that consists of
one to two concise paragraphs. A good abstract should consist of the four elements below:

The objectives of the study/experiment (the central question);

Brief statement of what was done (Methods);
Brief statement of what was found (Results);
Brief statement of what was concluded (Discussion).

**Please take note that the keyword for writing an abstract is Brief.

Introduction
It is in this section that the background information of the topic of interest is given/described. This section too,
highlights the important problem statement and tells the reader why you did the experiment.

Generally, it should consist:

Descriptions of the nature of the problem and summaries of relevant research to provide context and key
terms so your reader can understand the experiment.
The scope of your work and the OBJECTIVES of your experiments in order to answer the central question of
the study.
Hypothesis (if any) or explain what you are proposing for certain observations.

Experimental (Materials and Methods)

This section describes the experimental procedures in detail in such a manner that someone else could repeat the
experiment:

Explain the general type of scientific procedure you used to study the problem.
Describe what materials, subjects, and equipment you used (Materials).
Explain the steps you took in your experiment and how did you proceed (Methods).
Mathematical equations and statistical tests should be described.
Results
The results section should present data that you collected from your experiment and summarize the data with text,
tables, and/or figures. Effective results sections include:

All results should be presented, including those that do not support the hypothesis.
Statements made in the text must be supported by the results contained in figures and tables.

Discussion
It is in this section that you explain to the reader the significance of the results and give a detailed account of what
happened in the experiment. You need to evaluate what happened and the results obtained, based on the
hypothesis and purpose of the experiment. If the results contained errors, analyze the reasons for the errors. The
discussion should contain:

Summary of the important findings of your observations.

For each result, describe the patterns, principles, relationships your results show. Explain how your results
relate to expectations and to references cited. Explain any agreements, contradictions, or exceptions.
Describe what additional research might resolve contradictions or explain exceptions.
Suggest the theoretical implications of your results. Extend your findings to other situations or other species.
Give the big picture: do your findings help us understand a broader topic?

Conclusion
A brief summary of what was done and how, the results and your conclusions of the experiment. Explains briefly
whether your objectives were achieved and the central question(s) of the study is (were) answered through the
experiments that have been conducted.

In this section too, you may propose some recommendations with regards to the experimental work that you have
performed. You may suggest ideas to improvise the procedures or even alternative materials for the experiment.

References
This section consists a listing of published works that you have cited in the text of your report. The references
should be cited using the appropriate style proposed by your instructor OR you may choose any citation styles which
are normally used for scientific research report/paper. The citation style used must be the same throughout the
report.