7. COMMON DOCUMENT TYPES
7.6 Lab Reports
Whether your research takes place in a university lab or on some remote work site, you will often have to write up the results of your work in a Lab Report. Most basically, this report will describe the original hypothesis your work attempts to test, the methodology you used to test it, your observations and results of your testing, your analysis and discussion of what this data means, and your conclusions.
In an academic context, especially in early courses, you are often asked to replicate the results of others rather than conduct your own original research. This is usually meant to instill an understanding of the scientific method into students, and teach students the proper use of instruments, techniques, processes, data analysis, and documentation. Once you demonstrate your ability to understand and apply the scientific method in these contexts, you will be able to go on to design your own research studies and develop new knowledge. Your reports then become the way you pass on this new knowledge to the field and to society at large.
Students often assume that science is just “facts” and objective information, and are sometimes surprised to learn that science writing makes and defends claims just like writing in other academic sub-genres. For scientists and engineers to make valuable contributions to the sum of human knowledge, they must be able to convince readers that their findings are valid (can be replicated) and valuable (will have an impact). Thus, the way that you write these reports can impact the credibility and authority of your work; people will judge your work partly on how you present it. Yes, even lab reports have a persuasive edge and must make careful use of rhetorical strategies. Careless writing, poor organization, ineffective document design, and lack of attention to convention may cast doubt on your authority and expertise, and thus on the value of your work.
Science and Rhetoric
Some aspects of your report that might require you to think rhetorically are exemplified in how you approach the following questions:
- Why is this research important? How does it solve a problem or contribute in some way to expanding human knowledge?
- What have other researchers already discovered about this? How are you contributing to this conversation?
- What gaps are there in our knowledge about this topic?
- Why have you chosen this methodology to test your hypothesis? What limitations might it have?
- How and why do you derive these inferences from the data you have collected?
- What further research should be done? Why?
Writing a Lab Report
Your report will be based on the work you have done in the lab. Therefore, you must have a plan for keeping careful notes on what you have done, how you have done it, and what you observed. Researchers often keep a notebook with them in the lab, sometimes with pre-designed tables or charts for recording the data they know they will be observing (you might be gi