Structure
Your report should always start with the title and the author and end with references.
What we wish you to do for your report is use an organizational structure commonly used to report experimental research in many scientific disciplines, the AIMRAD format: Abstract,
Introduction, Methods, Results, And Discussion.
Title:
You should give the work your own title, not the one used in the procedure book.
Your title should:
• Describe contents clearly and precisely, so that readers can decide whether to read the report.
• Provide key words for indexing.
• Avoid wasted words such as "studies on," "an investigation of."
• Avoid abbreviations and jargon.
• Avoid "cute" titles.
Unacceptable: An Investigation of body temperature change during and after exercise.
Unacceptable: Body temperature: are we hot after exercise?
Acceptable: Body temperature change due to exercise.
Abstract:
Your abstract is the whole report in miniature, minus specific details. The abstract should be brief but you should still write using proper sentences (at most ¾ page of type at 12 points).
In it you should:
• State the main objectives. (What did you investigate? Why?)
• Briefly describe the methods. (What did you do?)
• Summarize the most important results. (What did you find out?)
• State the major conclusions and the significance of your results. (What do your results mean? So what?)
• Do not include references to figures, tables, or sources.
• Do not include information not in report.
• Process: Extract key points from each section. Condense in successive revisions.
• The summary of your results should include actual numerical values where you have them.
Introduction:
The introduction should set the scene to the whole report. Be fairly brief, giving the background to the topic to put it in context and clearly stating the aims or objectives of the experiments.
The introduction should do the following:
• Identify the topic/problem
Describe the topic/problem investigated.
Summarize relevant literature to provide the context, key terms, and concepts so your reader can understand the experiment.
• Explain why is it important Review relevant literature to provide a rationale.
• Describe what solution (or step toward a solution) you propose?
Briefly describe your experiment: hypothesis(es), research question(s); general experimental design or method; justification of method if alternatives exist.
• Move from general to specific--Identify the problem in real world/research literature and then move to linking this with your experiment.
• Engage your reader: answer the questions, "What did you do?" "Why should I care?"
• Make clear the links between the problem and the solution, question asked and research design, prior research and your experiment.
• Be selective in choosing studies to cite and amount of detail to include. Do not regurgitate the introduction on the procedure sheet and make sure that you do not end up writing an essay on everything to do with the subject being addressed.
Materials and Methods
This section describes how you studied the problem.
• What did you use? (May be subheaded as Materials)
What materials, subjects, and equipment (chemicals, apparatus, etc.) did you use?
• How did you proceed? (May be subheaded as Methods or Procedures) What steps did you take? (These may be subheaded by experiment, types of assay, etc.)
Identify CHANGES to the Laboratory Schedule given out to you – do not RETYPE the schedule. If no changes were made then simply identify this No changes were made to the laboratory schedule – then place this schedule in the appendix.
• Provide enough detail so that another person could duplicate your experiments following your method.
• Use past tense to describe what you did (remember that you have already done the experiment and are describing it afterwards so it should be in the past tense).
• Quantify when possible: concentrations, measurements, amounts (all metric); times (24-hour clock); temperatures (centigrade).
• Don't include details of common statistical procedures.
• Don't give any of your results with the methods.
Results:
What did you observe?
For each experiment or procedure:
• Briefly describe the experiment without the detail of Methods section (a sentence or two).
• Report main result(s), supported by selected data.
Your results should be set out as clearly as possible either in tables or as graphs.
You must also describe your results in words, referring to tables and figures but not simply repeating data. The aim is to help the reader interpret the data you give in the graphs or tables, pointing out the important trends etc.
• Order multiple results logically
• Use past tense to describe what happened.
• Don't simply repeat table data; select.
• Don't interpret results.
• Avoid extra words:
E.g. do not say, "It is shown in Table 1 that body temperature increased after exercise"
Do say: "Body temperature increased after exercise (Table 1)."
• Graphs should be used where data shows a trend e.g. body temperature measured over a day at hourly intervals.
Graphs must be adequately labelled and calibrated. Graphs and drawings are called “figures” and labelled “Figure 1”, “Figure 2” etc., in the sequence to which they are referred in the text.
In general, you should draw graphs by hand unless you are expert at using a computer to do it for you, but no computer aided special effects please!
All graphs should have a title. The title should give enough information to explain what is shown. Carefully consider what sort of graph you should be using e.g. bar chart, histogram, line graph. If you are not sure, either look it up in a text book or ask a tutor.
• Tables should be used if there is no trend or if exact numbers are more important.
Tables should be labelled “Table 1”, “Table 2” etc. Tables should be given a title at the top with any explanation and comments given at the bottom of the table in the form of footnotes.
• Label axes carefully Do not forget to include units of measurement ie. litre/minute or Grams or Hours.
Discussion:
What do your observations mean?
What conclusions can you draw?
Consider, for each major result
• What patterns, principles, relationships do your results show?
• How do results relate to expectations and to literature cited in Introduction (agreement,contradiction, exceptions)?
• What plausible explanations are there?
• What additional research might resolve contradictions, explain exceptions?
• Move from specifically discussing your findings to discussing them in the light of the literature, theory and practice. For example, if we were carrying out an experiment to investigate the enzymatic breakdown of starch, you should not only discuss your results but also comment in your discussion on the relevance of this to the human digestive system, the site of starch breakdown in the body and the enzymes involved.
• Did the study achieve the aims (resolve the problem, answer the question, support the hypothesis) presented in the Introduction?
• Make explanations complete.
• Give evidence (observations or literature) for each conclusion.
• Discuss possible reasons for expected and unexpected findings.
• Don't over generalise.
• Don't ignore deviations in your data.
• Avoid speculation that cannot be tested in the foreseeable future.
In the discussion you should comment on your results, interpreting them in the light of the initial aims and the published literature. You should try to draw your own conclusions. Keep your explanations brief and very relevant. Try hard not to simply repeat the text from your results section.
Your report should always start with the title and the author and end with references.
What we wish you to do for your report is use an organizational structure commonly used to report experimental research in many scientific disciplines, the AIMRAD format: Abstract,
Introduction, Methods, Results, And Discussion.
Title:
You should give the work your own title, not the one used in the procedure book.
Your title should:
• Describe contents clearly and precisely, so that readers can decide whether to read the report.
• Provide key words for indexing.
• Avoid wasted words such as "studies on," "an investigation of."
• Avoid abbreviations and jargon.
• Avoid "cute" titles.
Unacceptable: An Investigation of body temperature change during and after exercise.
Unacceptable: Body temperature: are we hot after exercise?
Acceptable: Body temperature change due to exercise.
Abstract:
Your abstract is the whole report in miniature, minus specific details. The abstract should be brief but you should still write using proper sentences (at most ¾ page of type at 12 points).
In it you should:
• State the main objectives. (What did you investigate? Why?)
• Briefly describe the methods. (What did you do?)
• Summarize the most important results. (What did you find out?)
• State the major conclusions and the significance of your results. (What do your results mean? So what?)
• Do not include references to figures, tables, or sources.
• Do not include information not in report.
• Process: Extract key points from each section. Condense in successive revisions.
• The summary of your results should include actual numerical values where you have them.
Introduction:
The introduction should set the scene to the whole report. Be fairly brief, giving the background to the topic to put it in context and clearly stating the aims or objectives of the experiments.
The introduction should do the following:
• Identify the topic/problem
Describe the topic/problem investigated.
Summarize relevant literature to provide the context, key terms, and concepts so your reader can understand the experiment.
• Explain why is it important Review relevant literature to provide a rationale.
• Describe what solution (or step toward a solution) you propose?
Briefly describe your experiment: hypothesis(es), research question(s); general experimental design or method; justification of method if alternatives exist.
• Move from general to specific--Identify the problem in real world/research literature and then move to linking this with your experiment.
• Engage your reader: answer the questions, "What did you do?" "Why should I care?"
• Make clear the links between the problem and the solution, question asked and research design, prior research and your experiment.
• Be selective in choosing studies to cite and amount of detail to include. Do not regurgitate the introduction on the procedure sheet and make sure that you do not end up writing an essay on everything to do with the subject being addressed.
Materials and Methods
This section describes how you studied the problem.
• What did you use? (May be subheaded as Materials)
What materials, subjects, and equipment (chemicals, apparatus, etc.) did you use?
• How did you proceed? (May be subheaded as Methods or Procedures) What steps did you take? (These may be subheaded by experiment, types of assay, etc.)
Identify CHANGES to the Laboratory Schedule given out to you – do not RETYPE the schedule. If no changes were made then simply identify this No changes were made to the laboratory schedule – then place this schedule in the appendix.
• Provide enough detail so that another person could duplicate your experiments following your method.
• Use past tense to describe what you did (remember that you have already done the experiment and are describing it afterwards so it should be in the past tense).
• Quantify when possible: concentrations, measurements, amounts (all metric); times (24-hour clock); temperatures (centigrade).
• Don't include details of common statistical procedures.
• Don't give any of your results with the methods.
Results:
What did you observe?
For each experiment or procedure:
• Briefly describe the experiment without the detail of Methods section (a sentence or two).
• Report main result(s), supported by selected data.
Your results should be set out as clearly as possible either in tables or as graphs.
You must also describe your results in words, referring to tables and figures but not simply repeating data. The aim is to help the reader interpret the data you give in the graphs or tables, pointing out the important trends etc.
• Order multiple results logically
• Use past tense to describe what happened.
• Don't simply repeat table data; select.
• Don't interpret results.
• Avoid extra words:
E.g. do not say, "It is shown in Table 1 that body temperature increased after exercise"
Do say: "Body temperature increased after exercise (Table 1)."
• Graphs should be used where data shows a trend e.g. body temperature measured over a day at hourly intervals.
Graphs must be adequately labelled and calibrated. Graphs and drawings are called “figures” and labelled “Figure 1”, “Figure 2” etc., in the sequence to which they are referred in the text.
In general, you should draw graphs by hand unless you are expert at using a computer to do it for you, but no computer aided special effects please!
All graphs should have a title. The title should give enough information to explain what is shown. Carefully consider what sort of graph you should be using e.g. bar chart, histogram, line graph. If you are not sure, either look it up in a text book or ask a tutor.
• Tables should be used if there is no trend or if exact numbers are more important.
Tables should be labelled “Table 1”, “Table 2” etc. Tables should be given a title at the top with any explanation and comments given at the bottom of the table in the form of footnotes.
• Label axes carefully Do not forget to include units of measurement ie. litre/minute or Grams or Hours.
Discussion:
What do your observations mean?
What conclusions can you draw?
Consider, for each major result
• What patterns, principles, relationships do your results show?
• How do results relate to expectations and to literature cited in Introduction (agreement,contradiction, exceptions)?
• What plausible explanations are there?
• What additional research might resolve contradictions, explain exceptions?
• Move from specifically discussing your findings to discussing them in the light of the literature, theory and practice. For example, if we were carrying out an experiment to investigate the enzymatic breakdown of starch, you should not only discuss your results but also comment in your discussion on the relevance of this to the human digestive system, the site of starch breakdown in the body and the enzymes involved.
• Did the study achieve the aims (resolve the problem, answer the question, support the hypothesis) presented in the Introduction?
• Make explanations complete.
• Give evidence (observations or literature) for each conclusion.
• Discuss possible reasons for expected and unexpected findings.
• Don't over generalise.
• Don't ignore deviations in your data.
• Avoid speculation that cannot be tested in the foreseeable future.
In the discussion you should comment on your results, interpreting them in the light of the initial aims and the published literature. You should try to draw your own conclusions. Keep your explanations brief and very relevant. Try hard not to simply repeat the text from your results section.
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