LAB REPORT WRITING
"ARGH! LAB REPORTS!"
If you're a MEDSCI student from stage 2 onwards, you probably hear this often. This article is aimed at those with little to no experience writing lab reports, offering some guidance on how to get started. Keep in mind that this reflects our own approach — you may well develop a method that works better for you, but most people tend to follow something similar. Additionally, this article is written with Physiology lab reports (particularly MEDSCI 205 and 206) in mind, which expect a written piece of work closest to what an actual journal article is like. Other departments within the School of Medical Sciences at UOA have different expectations per paper, so refer to your course coordinators for clarification.
If you've already got an idea of lab report writing, feel free to jump straight to our general tips and tricks.
1. Start with your results section
You've just competed your first lab! Now what? How on earth do you convert everything you did in the lab into a chunk of writing?
Do the results first, trust me. Usually, at lower levels (i.e. MEDSCI 205 & MEDSCI 206), the lab guide gives you an indication of what graphs/tables/diagrams to make. Follow these guidelines. If you don't have guidelines, heck, just make any random graph that makes sense. For example, if you've measured the height and weight of 100 different people, don't just make a 100x2 table of weight and height — make a scatterplot of weight vs height! This may be easier said than done, however, and it takes a bit of experience to get used to knowing what to do with the results. As such, be sure to ask your demonstrators in your lab what graphs they're expecting since they're the ones marking.
That is another point — just ask! The lab TAs are all very friendly and eager to help!
Also, completing the results section first helps you get something on the page. It's usually the easiest section and helps guide your through process. Hopefully, by the time you have your results section, you'll have organised your data into something which actually makes sense to you, and you can write the rest of your lab report accordingly.
In the results section, please remember to write a short description about the results you are presenting (e.g. visible trends), and annotate your figures if needed. Additionally, note that figure captions should be written below the figures, while table titles should be written above the table.
2. Next, write your discussion
Let's continue with our initial example. You've just measured the weight and height of 100 people, and you've made a scatterplot to show the relationship! You should've seen (from common sense) that as height increases, weight increases. In a typical physiology lab report, you'd be expected to do the following:
1. Explain the main trend and explain the physiology
"As seen in Figure 1, the trend shows that height is positively correlated with weight. This is likely because as people are dimensionally larger, they will require a larger brain to coordinate their larger body size (Smith et al., 2006). As such, we can estimate that with each increase of 1cm in height, the average increase in weight is 0.14kg according to our results. This is similar to previous research such as (Adam, 1984; Bob, 1996; Carter, 1999)."
2. Note outliers and explain the physiology
"Our results, however, show an outlier with a weight of 55kg but a height of 190cm. It is possible that this person had a nutritional disease such "Very-skinny-person Disease" in that they had a extremely large height value but a small weight value. Smith et al. in 2007 noted the existence of this disease where there were many individuals with similar weight-height values. This is likely to be due to a mutation on Chromosome 8 where this person has trouble breaking down glucose in fat cells but can break it down normally in 'skinny cells' which lead to this underweight and overly tall phenotype (Gene, 2012)."
3. Note the limitations in your experiment
"It is acknowledged that our results are limited as our measurements of height were recorded using the experimenter's finger lengths with his finger length later recorded down and each individual's height was converted from number of finger lengths to cm. As such, the error associated with our measurements was potentially extensive. However, as our results agree with current literature, we can cautiously suggest that these results are valid. Additionally, it has been shown that finger lengths are an appropriate measure for height (Banana, 1894)."
4. Give suggestions for improvement
"Further questions could be asked such as if there is a different trend between male and female weight to height ratios. However, as we did not have the foresight to bother asking if the test subject was male or female, we could not make this comparison. Additionally, we could have tested to see if being a left handed person or right handed person affected a person's weight to height ratio. Pinocchio et al., (2014) recently found that left handed people had a steeper trend in their weight - height relationship compared to their right handed counterparts. As such, these are exciting times for weight-height research such that we may determine factors which affect this relationship."
5. Conclude
3. Then, onto the introduction and aims
After you've written your discussion, re-read it to check through what terms you've mentioned. In the phoney example above, you could talk about things such as "Chromosome 8", "fat cell", "skinny cells", previous literature about the weight-height ratio etc. Consider the introduction to be the 'textbook-like' section of your lab report with many references. Imagine you're writing your own notes for an essay in the exam with the essay question being to explain those terms. Ideally, your introduction will introduce all the relevant concepts you've written about.
4. Write your Methods
To be honest, the methods section can be written whenever due to it being relatively straightforward and (for most undergraduate labs) a copy of what the laboratory manual mostly. It's basically rewording what you did. This should be written as soon as possible after your physical lab, while the memory is still fresh in your mind.
5. Proof-read, and submit!
Once you've finished, no matter how late it is, you should always proof-read it. This is to make sure you actually make sense. No matter how careful you are, it is very, very likely that you've made a small grammatical, spelling or general error. It seriously pays off big time to proof-read.
If you've done this last minute; it's 4AM in the morning and the report's due at 9AM; you're exhausted and want to sleep; PROOF READ IT!!! You're even more likely to make mistakes in those early hours and even a tired brain proof-reading what its tired self has blurted out will drastically improve its meaning!
Make sure you've referenced appropriately, with a full reference list at the end. Also check the submission requirements — often, you will need a cover/title page. And, you're ready to submit!
GENERAL TIPS & TRICKS
Start early!
This is, undoubtedly, the most important tip. Don't start last minute. Ideally, you'd like to finish the results section 1 day after your lab, discussion perhaps 2-3 days after your lab, and the rest of your report will soon be finished. This is because with the lab fresh in your mind, it makes it much easier to remember how to write both your results section, and your discussion with what the demonstrators told you in the lab. Seriously, it makes it so much easier if you do this. It's kind of funny how everyone knows to do this, yet most people still leave it until the night before its due!
NEVER PLAGARISE.
This is obvious, but still. It needs a mention.
If you do plagarise, you will likely be found out by the all-seeing eye of Turnitin. Still unsure about plagarism? A bit rusty on your knowledge from the immensely difficult Academic Integrity Course? The UoA website has a good guide that you can read here.
Always relate it back to the physiology.
You want an A+? Then explain (with research) why. Just don't forget to reference.
Structure your paragraphs.
In scientific writing, keep a consistent structure to your writing. Remember those high school English class tips of "SEER" (Statement, Explanation, Example, Re-state) or "PEEL" (Point, Explanation, Example, Link). Use this for each paragraph. Try not to let your lab report turn into a continuous train of dialogue with no clear logical flow. This is a huge mistake for many students. Try to keep one point or a few points well-established into brief paragraphs or interlinked points within the one paragraph.
Quality over quantity.
You might be tempted to waffle on for multiple pages, but seriously, don't. The marker does not appreciate it and the more you write, the more chance you might write something incorrect and get penalised. Once you've written your lab report, go through it again and try to delete unnecessary phrases or repeated phrases to keep it short and succinct.
Take your time.
Whoever thought that writing a lab report takes a mere 4-6 hours is not telling the whole truth. If it's your first time writing a lab report, don't be surprised if it takes you 12-14 hours. (i.e. your entire weekend GONE). Your first few lab reports will take quite some time; but once you get into the hang of things, work more efficiently, and get used to writing lab reports, you'll find that writing lab reports are much easier.
Reference.
Every statement you make about physiology, state your reference. If you yourself didn't personally discover something, reference it. Also, this applies to writing your discussion when you refer to your figures/tables from the results section - reference your results e.g. "as seen in figure 2", or "(fig. 2)"
There is no such thing as a "normal human".
Yes, it's tempting to say "normal heart rate", "normal blood pressure", but never every use this. What you think is normal is simply a parameter "within physiological norms".
Past tense. Third person.
Just remember to write in the past tense... it's just the "proper" way to do it. After all, you're writing a lab report which details what you did, not what you are doing or what you will do.
Also, try to avoid writing in first person — write in third person. Instead of using "we did this", or "I did this"; use "this was done".
Boring.
You might find that scientific writing is purposely boring. It uses past tense, and uses the third person. It is because science tries to use empirical evidence to prove hypotheses — it tries to avoid using fantastical, subjective, emotional language; by keeping your writing as "boring", or to view it in a better light: "professional" and "cautious", you maintain the objectivity required in scientific enquiry.