Francisco Said:

Past or Present Tense for writing Procedure in Lab Report?

We Answered:

It is always past tense for things you have done. For things that keep on going while you write it, ex. theories, you write that in the present.

Hope that helps :)

Ramon Said:

writing abstract for lab report - do you include the results?

We Answered:

Yes, the major results are included in the abstract. It's not like a suspense novel where the ending is best kept as a surprise. The purpose of the abstract is so that it provides a brief synopses of the report.

Historically, the abstract was used in indexing services, like Chemical Abstracts from the American Chemical Society. The abstracts for each paper indexed by ChemAbs were compiled in separate volumes, so that you could search keywords (by hand, using bound printed indeces), then go look up the abstract to see if it was worth getting the entire paper. Nowadays, with entire papers available electronically as easily as an abstract, they have become somewhat redundant in the sense of saving space in an index. What they are now used for is journals make the abstracts available for free, with there being a fee for the entire paper.

Violet Said:

I need help with writing a density lab report for chemistry.....?

We Answered:

they should have given you a format to write with but if not, you can always follow a generic one i guess.

Format i usually follow is:
Title page - includes Title, name, class section, course, date started or due

Abstract - should state what you did, why you did it, why is it useful, and what have you found out

Intro - almost same as abstract, but goes into a bit more detail

Methods - what you did for the experiment

Results, Raw Data - graphs, tabulated data

Discussion - explaining graphs and data, what went wrong, what is good data

Conclusion - ties everything together and goes back to abstract to answer any questions left out

Appendix, where calculations go


This might really help you considering it is from a educational website

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/…

http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/workbook…

Isaac Said:

Need help writing a lab report on extractn of mixture?Got any tips on links I can Use?

We Answered:

Your first link is the examples of lab reports in your class materials. Where are those not doing the trick for you?

Other than that, I'd suggest that you try typing "How do I write a lab report" into your search engine.

Ann Said:

What is the difference between a control factor and a control group? when writing a lab report?

We Answered:

A control factor is something that could affect your lab experiment. For example, if you are comparing how fast paper garbage bags biodegrade with how fast notebook paper biodegrades, you would want to consider the "control factors." One "control factor" would be the weather. If your paper garbage bags are located in an area that gets more rain than the site with the notebook paper, or if the rain water soaks into one garbage dump located in a valley but rolls off another garbage dump that is situated on a hill, then the rate of decomposition is going to be different. You want to control that factor, select dumps that are going to get the same weather so that you can truly compare the rates of decomposition.

A "control group" is a part of an experiment to show comparison in a different way. If I am conducting an experiment with mice by feeding mice an experimental vitamin, I can't just feed all my mice the vitamin and record my results. I'll need a "control group." I'll need a group of mice who are NOT going to take the vitamins. Everything else about these two control groups should be the same: food, sleeping conditions, living conditions, and exercise. If my mice taking the vitamins get really big, how will I know that the VITAMINS caused the growth, unless I have a control group? With a control group, I can show how mice living in the exact same conditions WITHOUT the vitamin grew, as compared to the mice who took the vitamins. THEN I can say that the VITAMINS are the reason for the growth.

Rafael Said:

What is the best way of writing a lab report? (university level)?

We Answered:

Lab reports are typically divided into four parts:

Objective
Procedure
Results (Data)
Conclusions

Objective is pretty short typically, you explain what you're trying to accomplish.

Procedure can be very detailed or not, depending on the complexity of the experiment. You want to include enough detail here that another person would be able to recreate your experiement from following this section.

Data includes any results, observations, measurements that you obtained from your experiment.

Conclusions is pretty self explanatory - what can you conclude from your experiment results?

The beef of the report should be in procedures and results (data). At the same time, I should be able to read your objective and conclusion sections and be able to roughly sum up your report.

Good luck.