Background:

• good writing is an essential skill
• what do we write:
• teachers: lectures, letters of recommendation, grant proposals, research papers, critiques of research papers and grant proposals written by other researchers, progress reports, committee reports, and letters and memos.
• students: essays, literature reviews, term papers, laboratory reports, senior thesis
• essentially, we are preparing arguments
• format of these types of write-ups is very similar

• Title
• Name - address of author
• Abstract
• Introduction
• why has the study been undertaken?
• summary of relevant background facts
• statement of specific problem addressed in this report
• Methods
• describe what you did in the lab
• Results
• present data in tables and figures
• reveal any trends you have found
• do not interpret the data
• Discussion
• how do your results relate to the goals of the study?
• formulate a hypothesis
• References

1. Compile and plot data
2. Outline
3. ‘Methods'
4. ‘Results’
5. ‘Discussion’
6. ‘Introduction’
7. ‘Title’
8. 'Abstract'
9. ‘References’

• Title
• a one line explanation of your experiment
• should be as specific and as informative as possible
• should reflect the contents of the report

• Abstract
• summary of your results (the shorter the better)
• information in title should not be repeated
• state major results
• point out one significant implication
• be explicit, use numbers where appropriate
• Introduction
• an explanation of the problem you are trying to solve which gives the reader sufficient background, including citations of relevant references to evaluate your results and conclusions.
• brake up the section into logical segments by using subheads
• include statement of the problem, and the method you will use to solve that problem
• Methods
• explanation of exactly what you did
• this description should enable the person reading the report to reproduce your results
• includes both experimental methods as well as calculations that are relevant to your results.
• Results
• a description of your first-order observations.
• this is where the data collected should be put into tables for others to use for further work.
• this also where data showing temporal and spatial variations should go to help reader follow written description.
• express all results with SI (metric) units
• estimate the errors of your measurement technique
• do not interpret the results just show basic observations
• lay out the case as for a jury - present sufficient details so that others can draw their own inferences and construct their own explanations
• Discussion
• a description of the what the major patterns mean.
• what are the likely causes (mechanisms) underlying these patterns?
• why are the patterns important and how do they relate to other observations (cite references of other observations)?
• interpret results in terms of background laid out in the introduction.
• Graphs and Tables
• wrestle with your data
• organize the data so that the underlying story is revealed
• tables:
• include column headings (units!)
• graphs:
• clearly label axis (units!)
• legend
• make optimal use of the plot area
• plot dependent parameter(s) on Y-axis
• number graphs and tables
• do not include graphs or tables that you do not discuss

• References:

Refer to references in the test as (author, year), (author1 and author 2, year), or (author1 et al., year), depending on the number of authors, e.g. (Pitelka and Child, 1964) or (Stute et al., 1995).
• Hunt, S. (1966) Carbohydrate and amino acid composition of the egg capsules of the whelk. Nature, 210, 436-437.
• Stute, M., J.F. Clark, P. Schlosser, W.S. Broecker, and G. Bonani (1995) A high altitude continental paleotemperature record derived from noble gases dissolved in groundwater from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. Quat. Res., 43, 209-220.
• Pitelka, D.R., and F.M. Child (1964) Review of ciliary structure and function. In: Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, Vol. 3 (S.H. Hutner, editor), Academic Press, New York, 131-198.
• Pechenik, J.A. (1987) A short guide to writing about biology. Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 194pp.
• Sambrotto, R. (1997) lecture notes, Environmental Data Analysis, Barnard College, Oct 2, 1997.
• NEARDAT (1997) http://capita.wustl.edu/neardat/, Oct 2, 1997.
• Encyclopædia Britannica (2004)  International System of Units. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 10 Feb. 2004  <http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=43567>.
• General
• Make sure that you really understand what you write about.
• Write to illuminate, not to confuse. Use simple words and simple phrases. Define all specialized terminology.
• Make a statement and back it up by a reference, figure, or explanation! You are making an argument, you want to convince.
• Always distinguish fact from possibility.
• Never make the reader back up. Your writing should flow smoothly and logically from point to point.
• Be concise. Read you text again and ask yourself, can I shorten the text while still making the argument?
• Think about which audience you want to address and choose your language accordingly.
• Don’t plagiarize. Express your own thoughts in your own words. If you are quoting from another writer, credit your source explicitly.
• The word ‘data’ is plural.
• Proofread. Check for grammar, spelling, and typographical errors. Use your spell checker.
Writing lab reports is a good exercise for your senior thesis, a thesis has a very similar format!

Things that need improvment in the labreports (2008)

• content
• be quantittaive in your abstract ("sample one was 20% lower in all anions than sample two, Cl^- concentration was higher by a factor of 2, ......")
  
• the abstract can have one or two introductory sentences, but then you should summarize your main finding(s); the abstract as a whole is not an introduction to the topic.
• make sure your sample data fall withing the range (in terms of peak area) that is covered by your standards. Don't give a concentration if you are below the calibration range (the smalles standard). This should take care of the negative values that pop up here and there. If  the peakarea exceeds the largest peak area of your standards, still calculate the concentration but mention in the text that you are outside the calibration range and that the data may be less accurate than those that fall into the calibration range. Relative differences are still valid, but the concentrations may be off by a fixed amount.
• do a little bit of background research, e.g. where does the water your samples comes from, is it treated in some ways,  etc.
• in many reports, nitrate is reported as 'mg/L as N', this means that 10 mg/L of nitrate (as N) corrspond to a nitrate concentration of  62 mg/L.
  
• form
• please print the report double spaced so that I can give you feedback
  
• figures
• make sure to include a chart that shows the comparison of your data
• remove titles and outer frames from the figures
  
• tables
• the report should have a table with your results, you can include the error estimate in the table as well. You do not need to include the peak areas, just the concentrations are fine.
• consider the number of significant figures that you want to use
• label tables as 'Tables' not 'Figures'
  

Things that need improvement in the labreports (2006):

• content
• If you work on the F story - include info on target levels for addition of F.
• sample locations (and dates) should be included in data table, but can also be mentioned in the rsults section text.
  
• the term 'contaminant' requires that the concentration of a substance is elevated above a certain limit
• include an abstract and atfer one sentence of introduction be specific & quantitatiive in what you say
• say somthing about the DI (blank) measurements in results
• do not write methods section in 'cookbook' format, but compress the description to a minimum, but still give enough info so that somebody else could reproduce what you did.
  
• form
• used double spacing bewteen lines so that an editor can add text
• pay attention to the citation rules given above
• do not use superlatives
• be careful about significant digits
  
• figures
• include a figure caption
• get rid of titles in graphs
• refer to figures in text
  
• tables
• include a table under 'results' that shows the data that your lab report is based on
• tables need a caption
• include row with error estimates in table (or caption) and say what type of error you are referring to