GUIDELINES FOR WRITTING LABORATORY REPORTS

A technical report communicates the results of an experimental work and is the only tangible evidence for evaluation of the work. Therefore, the laboratory report should be written with professionalism, stating the major aims of the experiments, the significant results, the technical procedures used, the analysis of the data, and ultimately the usefulness of the data obtained. The report should be clear, concise, and accurate. A specific format for laboratory reports that is to be used is given below:

Written reports are to be submitted with a 1 inch left margin, 0.75 inch margins top, bottom and right. The Times New Roman text should be 10 point font in figure captions and 12 point font in the body. The line spacing of the document should be 2. All sections of the report must be in paragraph, narrative form. Only the Title Page and Abstract should be on separate pages, while the remaining report should be continuous from the Introduction section onwards.

1. Title Page

This page gives the title of the project, followed by the name of the author, the names of the collaborators, the date of submission, and identification of the institution or organization supporting the work

2. Abstract

A concise (200 words) statement of the essential contents of the report, briefly stating the principal aim of the project, the methodology used, the results obtained and conclusions drawn. Abstract is the most important section of the report as it makes the first impression on the reader and thus, should be written very carefully forming a “stand-alone” section of the report.

3. Introduction

The introduction presents the background of the project and describes how the project relates to the “big picture” or prior work in the field. It should explain fully: What is the central topic of the experiment? Why the work is being done? What are the specific objectives? What has been done previously in the field? etc.

4. Materials and Methods

This section should include the experimental set-up and procedure in sufficient details enabling others in the field to be able to completely understand the experiment and duplicate the work if needed. The model and supplier of the equipment and chemicals used should be included in this section. A schematic diagram of the experimental equipment and set-up should also be included.

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5. Results and Discussion

This section includes the experimental data obtained. The data need to be presented in terms of graphs, figures and tables, and also should be accompanied with related text describing the data.

All figures, graphs and tables must be assigned a number (e.g. Table 1, Figure 1, etc.) and must have a caption that is descriptive of the information contained in the figure. A restatement of the information on the axes is not an acceptable title. Each figure and table should occupy a half or less than half page, and should appear immediately after first mention in the text.

This section also discusses all important interpretations that are derived from the results. The positive conclusions based on the results and comparisons with previously-published literature data are presented in details.

6. Conclusions

This section is a succinct summary of the conclusions developed in the discussion section. All of the information in this section is inherently repetitive, as is the case in the Abstract section.

7. Recommendations

Useful recommendations regarding a possible extension of the present work or a potential improvement in the experimental design or set-up should be succinctly presented in this section.

8. References

References cited in the report (usually in the introduction section) are listed in this section. In the report text, references should give the number for the respective reference source, which will be listed in alphabetical order as they appear in the text. Journal titles should either be given in full or abbreviated form. Reference to the lab manual is not allowed.

For Example:

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, which affects basal forebrain, cortex and hippocampus, while cerebellum is relatively spared [1]. AD brain is characterized by extracellular deposits of amyloid beta (Aβ) protein and intracellular accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles [1]. Aβ protein is derived from the proteolysis of β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) by β-secretase (BACE1) and γ-secretase, BACE1 step being the rate-limiting step [2].

1. Mattson MP: Pathways towards and away from Alzheimer’s disease. Nature, 2004, 430(7000): 631-639.
2. Cunha-Oliveira T, Rego AC, Cardoso SM, Borges F, Swerdlow RH, Macedo T, de Oliveira CR: Mitochondrial dysfunction and caspase activation in rat cortical neurons treated with cocaine or amphetamine. Brain Res, 2006, 1089(1): 44-54.

9. Appendix

Use of an appendix is optional.