10/25/18

Lab Notebook 10 Reflection

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to gain constructive criticism on the figures presented to the class. In the lab, students also learned about which items and details of the experiment go in each section of a research paper and the purpose of each.

Abstract: The abstract includes a short overview of the article in under 250 words. It should not include any details or any reference to citations. It should only include some background, purpose and basic information of the methods and important results. Lastly the abstract should end in a short conclusion. The purpose of the abstract is to give the reader of the article an overview of what is going to be talked about.

Introduction: The introduction should include a solid background on what the experiment is about. The introduction should also be in the form of an argument while referencing other sources to aid in describing the background of the experiment. The information in the introduction also needs to inform the reader of the importance of the article. The purpose of the introduction is to give the reader a good idea of the purpose for the experiment as well as some information that will be useful in being able to understand the rest of the article.

Methods and Materials: The materials and methods give the procedures of each task done throughout the experiment. The materials and methods should explain in detail what was done in each task giving each measurement and material used. No results or analyses of any information should be included. Lastly, this section should be written in the past tense. The purpose of the methods and materials is to inform the reader of the materials used and procedures followed that lead to the results. 

Results: The results section should be written by going off of the materials and methods section in order to describe the results of each task done. The results should start by giving an analysis of each figure and also include each figure in this section. The narrative of the results should refer to the figures and describe what they are demonstrating. No interpretations or conclusions should be made or discussed in this section. The results should strictly include information about what each figure is conveying. You should be sure that each figure is easy to interpret, concise and correct and include descriptive captions. The statistical analysis should also be included and explained for each figure. The “n” values should be included in the figure captions to correctly explain what the figures are showing. The purpose of the results is to inform the reader of what each figure is showing without discussing any conclusions. 

Discussion: The discussion talks about the significance of the results and what they mean from a general standpoint. This section should also compare information with other research from outside sources. The discussion should include other important questions or suggestions for future experiments based on the conclusions made from the current experiment. The purpose of the discussion is to provide an analysis of the results offering conclusions and suggestions for future experiments. 

Acknowledgements and Citations: This section should include all outside sources used to help explain parts of any of the sections in the article. The sources should be cited in standard APA style with numerical in-text citations. The citations should also be listed alphabetically by the last name with the lead author with each citation numbered. The in text citations include the citation number when referencing. The purpose of the acknowledgements and citations is to give credit to outside sources and authors  while also give the reader the option of looking at these outside sources to gain more information about related experiments.