This chapter included two examples of lab reports. The first one was a typical lab report written during an undergraduate biochemistry lab that particular week. The second lab report was for a much longer inquiry-based microbiology project. The weekly lab report is less formal, more “raw” and probably not as detailed as the second report. It appears that the abstracts of both of the papers follow the same format and contain all the necessities. The differences start to appear in the introduction. The weekly lab report contains less background information therefore it contains a more thorough explanation of purpose and a general overview of the experiment. Both of the materials and methods provide the steps and purpose of the method. I didn’t expect to see calculation and formula steps but considering this is a short lab report and is not as formal, it is acceptable. Also, lab reports such as the first one usually include raw data (and calculations) to let the instructor evaluate howw you arrived at your conclusions and your thinking process. I didn’t see any citations for other sources. The results and discussion section were combined which allowed the student to state and interpret their findings and discuss possible limitations and answer any questions that were asked by the instructor. There is no comparing and contrasting with other sources and there is no “conclusion” paragraph.
For the longer report, there is a more informative paragraph. The introduction contains a paragraph of background information and citations, it is much longer, the unknown is stated, the purpose is clearly stated in the last paragraph and so is the experimental approach. There are separate titled sections in the Materials section and provide enough details so that someone else can repeat the experiment. For every experimental approach, potential outcomes and their meaning are described. The results section is very long and also subdivided into sections. It is important to follow the order of content that was presented in the materials and methods section. Figure titles start with a short title and additional information such as explanations or abbrevations. The first paragraph in the discussion section contains main findings. This section also compares and contrasts the stdy with others in the field. Last paragraph summarizes results, provides the conclusion and significance.
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