Tips for Writing Lab Reports

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1. Be Professional

One of the most common mistakes is that professional expressions are not used. Avoid something like "I think...", "We went to the observatory to look up the sky", etc. Also, avoid quantitative comments such as "good/nice image", "reasonable error", etc. These sound very relative with no quantitative measure.

2. Provide Sufficient Information

Write your report assuming that readers don't know much about your work. Given the information (e.g., data and procedure) you provide in the report, others should be able to reproduce your results. Also, provide sufficient information in the introduction section to motivate readers (what this lab is about, objectives, etc.). Even I (grader) find it difficult to follow some reports as necessary informations are missing. I know this will add more work for you but, to save your time and effort, it is okay to steal some text from the lab manual so that your report can flow more smoothly with sufficient background information. Your observation date/time/weather conditions are also good to have in your report.

3. Format/Style

Be mindful of the format and style. - Figures, tables, equations need to be properly numbered and mentioned accordingly in text. Place captions under each table and figure and these need to be called out in the same section. If Figure 1 shows up in Section 1, the text describing Figure 1 should be included in Section 1. - Use a proper citation (use a number or something and put the article information at the end). If an article is cited, clarify that in text. Otherwise, it can be considered plagiarism. Also don't forget to show proper units (not just numbers).

4. Your Analysis

Read the lab manual more carefully. I see some of you skip/omit necessary analysis. It is difficult to assess your work if you do not provide how you obtained the results. I know some methods are already provided in the manual but please show your work more thoroughly. For example, many of you didn't mention the Python work for error analysis.