Lab Reports

Every laboratory will require a written report, and these will be the primary basis for your grade. The report is due at the beginning of the following laboratory, but may be returned the week of the experiment to a deposit box in Room 204 any time earlier. If the next laboratory is a Makeup Week, the report must be turned in to the deposit box before the normal class time. Late reports will not be graded, except in the event of a documented emergency. All reports will be graded and returned simultaneously, one week from the due date.

Module 11 in the Laboratory Manual specifies the style for the laboratory report. (This is on page 69, but note that there are two page 69s, and this is the second of them.) Reports for this section must be typed to receive full credit. Handwritten reports will be accepted as a last resort, but must be printed and legible, and legibility will be a significant factor in the grade. You may write equations by hand in any report, but they must be legible.

While you will work together in the laboratory, at its end, each student will have an individual record of the experiment, and will use this record to write a personal laboratory report. The lab report is absolutely not a team or joint project. You should have the same data as your partner, but its interpretation should be your own, and anything written about it must express your own ideas and be in your own words. If you are in doubt, ask before turning in the report.

The manual gives good advice on what to do and to avoid when writing a report. A report should be complete, but not excessively wordy, and should avoid repetition and overgeneralization. When writing the discussion, be aware that it is impossible to prove anything using an experiment. You can only confirm agreement with a theory within the precision of your experiment. The discussion should show whether the agreement was within reason for your procedures, based on an estimate of the errors in the data you acquired. The sources of the errors should be discussed. If you do not agree with the theory, you should discuss possible reasons, and make suggestions for improving the measurements. If your grades on laboratory reports are unsatisfactory and you do not understand why, be sure to schedule an appointment to discuss this in detail, and bring your reports to the meeting. If English skills are a problem, you may also wish to contact the Citadel Writing and Learning Center. See www.citadelwritingandlearning.com.