10/25/18

Trent McMillan

Lab 10: Lab Report Reflection

Objective:

The objective of this lab was to help us in writing our rough draft of our Lab Report and make changes in our final figures that will be used in the rough draft.

Abstract:

The abstract should contain a brief outline of the entire article along with some background, purpose,  supplemental information, and a conclusion or recommendation. The abstract should be no longer than 250 words and should not include details of the methods. The abstract is designed this way to inform a reader of what the report is about and whether it pertains to the information they are searching for or not.

Introduction:

The introduction should give the background of the experiment and all the information needed in order for a reader to understand why the experiment is important. This allows readers to collect before continuing on with the report enough information so that they understand the reasoning behind the methods and results of the experiment.

Materials and Methods:

The methods section should explain everything you did during the experiment in a concise manner. It should be very detailed so that readers are able to replicate the experiment step for step accurately without causing a problem in their replication.

Results:

Each step that has an outcome in the methods section should have a result along with representing figures in this section. This gives readers the ability to see what you got out of your experiment and possibly see where they can go from in making their own experiment to continue the research of your subject. Basically, this allows the scientific community an opportunity to further our understanding of the experimental question.

Discussion:

The discussion should be the conclusions of which you take from your results. Asking important questions that recommend what should be addressed now that we know certain information plays a major role in this section by allowing readers to attack a new angle or go deeper into an angle of which you have already taken. Without the discussion section there would be no communication between the author and reader about where we think is the correct direction to go in terms of new experiments.

Citations:

Just like any other paper, any time you use someone else’s work you must give them credit via references. Plagiarism is stealing someone else’s work and is never accepted within the scientific community.

Future Steps:

In the future, I will use what I have learned about properly writing a lab report as I continue to perform research (hopefully on a bigger stage someday) and conduct scientific writing.