3/28/22, 6:55 PM How To Write A Lab Report | Step-by-Step Guide & Examples

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How To Write A Lab Report | Step-by-Step Guide &

Examples

Published on
May 20, 2021
by
Pritha Bhandari.

A lab report conveys the aim, methods, results, and conclusions of a scientific experiment.

The main purpose of a lab report is to demonstrate your understanding of the scientific
method by performing and evaluating a hands-on lab experiment. This type of assignment is
usually shorter than a research paper.

Lab reports are commonly used in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) fields. This article focuses on how to structure and write a lab report.

Structuring a lab report

The sections of a lab report can vary between scientific fields and course requirements, but
they usually contain the purpose, methods, and findings of a lab experiment.
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Each section of a lab report has its own purpose.

 Table of contents
Title: expresses the topic of your study
Abstract: summarizes your research aims, methods, results, and conclusions
Introduction: establishes the context needed to understand the topic
Method: describes the materials and procedures used in the experiment
Results: reports all descriptive and inferential statistical analyses
Discussion: interprets and evaluates results and identifies limitations
Conclusion: sums up the main findings of your experiment
References: list of all sources cited using a specific style (e.g. APA)
Appendices: contains lengthy materials, procedures, tables or figures

Although most lab reports contain these sections, some sections can be omitted or combined
with others. For example, some lab reports contain a brief section on research aims instead of
an introduction, and a separate conclusion is not always required.

If you’re not sure, it’s best to check your lab report requirements with your instructor.

Title
Your title provides the first impression of your lab report – effective titles communicate the
topic and/or the findings of your study in specific terms.

Create a title that directly conveys the main focus or purpose of your study. It doesn’t need to
be creative or thought-provoking, but it should be informative.

Title examples

The effects of varying nitrogen levels on tomato plant height.

Testing the universality of the McGurk effect.
Comparing the viscosity of common liquids found in kitchens.

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 Table of contents
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Abstract
An abstract condenses a lab report into a brief overview of about 150–300 words. It should
provide readers with a compact version of the research aims, the methods and materials
used, the main results, and the final conclusion.

Think of it as a way of giving readers a preview of your full lab report. Write the abstract last,
in the past tense, after you’ve drafted all the other sections of your report, so you’ll be able to
succinctly summarize each section.

To write a lab report abstract, use these guiding questions:

1. What is the wider context of your study?

2. What research question were you trying to answer?
3. How did you perform the experiment?
4. What did your results show?
5. How did you interpret your results?
6. What is the importance of your findings?

Example: Abstract

Nitrogen is a necessary nutrient for high quality plants. Tomatoes, one of the most consumed
fruits worldwide, rely on nitrogen for healthy leaves and stems to grow fruit. This experiment
tested whether nitrogen levels affected tomato plant height in a controlled setting. It was
expected that higher levels of nitrogen fertilizer would yield taller tomato plants.

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Levels of nitrogen fertilizer were varied between three groups of tomato plants. The control
group did not
 Table receive any nitrogen fertilizer, while one experimental group received low
of contents
levels of nitrogen fertilizer, and a second experimental group received high levels of nitrogen
fertilizer. All plants were grown from seeds, and heights were measured 50 days into the
experiment.

The effects of nitrogen levels on plant height were tested between groups using an ANOVA.
The plants with the highest level of nitrogen fertilizer were the tallest, while the plants with
low levels of nitrogen exceeded the control group plants in height. In line with expectations
and previous findings, the effects of nitrogen levels on plant height were statistically
significant. This study strengthens the importance of nitrogen for tomato plants.

Introduction
Your lab report introduction should set the scene for your experiment. One way to write your
introduction is with a funnel (an inverted triangle) structure:

1. Start with the broad, general research topic

2. Narrow your topic down your specific study focus
3. End with a clear research question

Begin by providing background information on your research topic and explaining why it’s
important in a broad real-world or theoretical context. Describe relevant previous research on
your topic and note how your study may confirm it or expand it, or fill a gap in the research
field.

Example: Referring to previous research

This lab experiment builds on previous research from Haque, Paul, and Sarker (2011), who
demonstrated that tomato plant yield increased at higher levels of nitrogen. However, the
present research focuses on plant height as a growth indicator and uses a lab-controlled
setting instead.

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Next, go into detail on the theoretical basis for your study and describe any directly relevant
laws or
 equations
Table of that you’ll be using. State your main research aims and expectations by
contents
outlining your hypotheses.

Example: Stating your hypothesis

Based on the importance of nitrogen for tomato plants, the primary hypothesis was that the
plants with the high levels of nitrogen would grow the tallest. The secondary hypothesis was
that plants with low levels of nitrogen would grow taller than plants with no nitrogen.

Your introduction doesn’t need to be long, but you may need to organize it into a few
paragraphs or with subheadings such as “Research Context” or “Research Aims.”

Method
A lab report Method section details the steps you took to gather and analyze data. Give
enough detail so that others can follow or evaluate your procedures. Write this section in the
past tense. If you need to include any long lists of procedural steps or materials, place them
in the Appendices section but refer to them in the text here.

You should describe your experimental design, your subjects, materials, and specific
procedures used for data collection and analysis.

Experimental design
Briefly note whether your experiment is a within-subjects or between-subjects design, and
describe how your sample units were assigned to conditions if relevant.

Example: Experimental design

A between-subjects design with three groups of tomato plants was used. The control group
did not receive any nitrogen fertilizer. The first experimental group received a low level of
nitrogen fertilizer, while the second experimental group received a high level of nitrogen
fertilizer.

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Subjects
Describe human subjects in terms of demographic characteristics, and animal or plant
subjects in terms of genetic background. Note the total number of subjects as well as the
number of subjects per condition or per group. You should also state how you recruited
subjects for your study.

Materials
List the equipment or materials you used to gather data and state the model names for any
specialized equipment.

Example: Materials

List of materials

35 Tomato seeds

Soil

15 plant pots (15 cm tall)

Water

Light lamps (50,000 lux)

Nitrogen fertilizer

Measuring tape

Describe your experimental settings and conditions in detail. You can provide labelled
diagrams or images of the exact set-up necessary for experimental equipment. State how
extraneous variables were controlled through restriction or by fixing them at a certain level
(e.g., keeping the lab at room temperature).

Example: Experimental settings

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Light levels were fixed throughout the experiment, and the plants were exposed to 12 hours of
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light a day. Temperature was restricted to between 23 and 25℃. The pH and carbon levels of
the soil were also held constant throughout the experiment as these variables could influence
plant height. The plants were grown in rooms free of insects or other pests, and they were
spaced out adequately.

Procedures
Your experimental procedure should describe the exact steps you took to gather data in
chronological order. You’ll need to provide enough information so that someone else can
replicate your procedure, but you should also be concise. Place detailed information in the
appendices where appropriate.

In a lab experiment, you’ll often closely follow a lab manual to gather data. Some instructors
will allow you to simply reference the manual and state whether you changed any steps
based on practical considerations. Other instructors may want you to rewrite the lab manual
procedures as complete sentences in coherent paragraphs, while noting any changes to the
steps that you applied in practice.

If you’re performing extensive data analysis, be sure to state your planned analysis methods
as well. This includes the types of tests you’ll perform and any programs or software you’ll
use for calculations (if relevant).

Example: Procedures

First, tomato seeds were sown in wooden flats containing soil about 2 cm below the surface.
Each seed was kept 3-5 cm apart. The flats were covered to keep the soil moist until
germination. The seedlings were removed and transplanted to pots 8 days later, with a
maximum of 2 plants to a pot. Each pot was watered once a day to keep the soil moist.

The nitrogen fertilizer treatment was applied to the plant pots 12 days after transplantation.
The control group received no treatment, while the first experimental group received a low
concentration, and the second experimental group received a high concentration. There were

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5 pots in each group, and each plant pot was labelled to indicate the group the plants
belonged
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50 days after the start of the experiment, plant height was measured for all plants. A
measuring tape was used to record the length of the plant from ground level to the top of the
tallest leaf.

Results
In your results section, you should report the results of any statistical analysis procedures
that you undertook. You should clearly state how the results of statistical tests support or
refute your initial hypotheses.

The main results to report include:

any descriptive statistics

statistical test results
the significance of the test results
estimates of standard error or confidence intervals

Example: Results

The mean heights of the plants in the control group, low nitrogen group, and high nitrogen
groups were 20.3, 25.1, and 29.6 cm respectively. A one-way ANOVA was applied to calculate
the effect of nitrogen fertilizer level on plant height. The results demonstrated statistically
significant (p = .03) height differences between groups.

Next, post-hoc tests were performed to assess the primary and secondary hypotheses. In
support of the primary hypothesis, the high nitrogen group plants were significantly taller
than the low nitrogen group and the control group plants. Similarly, the results supported the
secondary hypothesis: the low nitrogen plants were taller than the control group plants.

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These results can be reported in the text or in tables and figures. Use text for highlighting a
few key
 results,
Table ofbut present large sets of numbers in tables, or show relationships between
contents
variables with graphs.

You should also include sample calculations in the Results section for complex experiments.
For each sample calculation, provide a brief description of what it does and use clear
symbols. Present your raw data in the Appendices section and refer to it to highlight any
outliers or trends.

Discussion
The Discussion section will help demonstrate your understanding of the experimental process
and your critical thinking skills.

In this section, you can:

Interpret your results

Compare your findings with your expectations
Identify any sources of experimental error
Explain any unexpected results
Suggest possible improvements for further studies

Interpreting your results involves clarifying how your results help you answer your main
research question. Report whether your results support your hypotheses.

Did you measure what you sought out to measure?

Were your analysis procedures appropriate for this type of data?

Compare your findings with other research and explain any key differences in findings.

Are your results in line with those from previous studies or your classmates’ results? Why
or why not?

An effective Discussion section will also highlight the strengths and limitations of a study.

Did you have high internal validity or reliability?

How did you establish these aspects of your study?

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When describing limitations, use specific examples. For example, if random error contributed
substantially
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thecontents
measurements in your study, state the particular sources of error (e.g.,
imprecise apparatus) and explain ways to improve them.

Example: Discussion

The results support the hypothesis that nitrogen levels affect plant height, with increasing
levels producing taller plants. These statistically significant results are taken together with
previous research to support the importance of nitrogen as a nutrient for tomato plant
growth.

However, unlike previous studies, this study focused on plant height as an indicator of plant
growth in the present experiment. Importantly, plant height may not always reflect plant
health or fruit yield, so measuring other indicators would have strengthened the study
findings.

Another limitation of the study is the plant height measurement technique, as the measuring
tape was not suitable for plants with extreme curvature. Future studies may focus on
measuring plant height in different ways.

The main strengths of this study were the controls for extraneous variables, such as pH and
carbon levels of the soil. All other factors that could affect plant height were tightly
controlled to isolate the effects of nitrogen levels, resulting in high internal validity for this
study.

Conclusion
Your conclusion should be the final section of your lab report. Here, you’ll summarize the
findings of your experiment, with a brief overview of the strengths and limitations, and
implications of your study for further research.

Some lab reports may omit a Conclusion section because it overlaps with the Discussion
section, but you should check with your instructor before doing so.

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Frequently asked questions about lab reports

 Table of contents

What is a lab report? 

What’s the difference between a lab report and a research paper? 

What are the sections of a lab report? 

What’s the difference between results and discussion? 

Is this article helpful?

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Pritha Bhandari
Pritha has an academic background in English, psychology and cognitive neuroscience. As an
interdisciplinary researcher, she enjoys writing articles explaining tricky research concepts for
students and academics.

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A guide to experimental design

 Table
Experimental of contents
design is the process of planning an experiment to test a hypothesis. The choices you make affect the
validity of your results.
1025

How to write an APA methods section

In the methods section of an APA research paper, you report in detail the participants, measures, and procedure of
your study.
128

How to write an APA results section

In an APA style results section, you summarize your data and report the findings of all relevant statistical analyses.
100

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