In scientific studies, it is very essential to have lab reports. While writing a chemistry lab project, you need to write theory behind the experiments and tests followed by procedures and all the observed data. A lab report must be written or typed in such a way that if a person reading it follows out the same procedure is likely to get same results.
Make sure, you are alert while performing tests with reactive chemicals and burners to protect yourself from any unaware hazards. Below are some of the steps that you should take care of while dealing with Chemistry assignments:
Getting started
- Get yourself familiar with your lab manual provided to you by your teacher or instructor in lab. See to it that you understand everything in it and if you have any problem with it, make sure to consult your instructor prior submission.
- Look out for the format provided by your teacher. Teachers prefer formats given by them for the students to prepare their projects. Unlike essays and creative writings, you have to categorise and write mostly in points. Important points to follow while writing is:
- Sentences must be completely written
- While writing the report, you must use passive voice
- Using third person is mandatory
- Verbs and grammar must be to the point. Wrong tense and grammar may lead to bad impressions. Always try to use present tense until and unless you get to explain old and previous procedures of your experiment.
- Make a hypothesis about the experiment. Jot down important points about what the experiment is doing and what you are going to learn from it. Hypothesis is also a way of making a guess about what the results are going to be. Before predicting, you must disclaim that it is just an idea and you may come up with a completely different result.
- Get accustomed to what your instructor or teacher wants you to do. There may be demands for footnotes and some other formatting skills.
Organising the project
Every section must appear in your project in the following format. Title must be labelled explicitly in bold letters to differentiate form other sections and texts. Most importantly, at the end of every section, there must be a line gap.
- Title
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Experiment
- Results
- Discussions
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgement
- Reference
- Table
- Schemes
- Figure legends
- Supporting information
Writing the basics
- Start your cover by writing about the title or topic followed by your name and other personal information. While writing a lab assignment, the main and most important to mention is the date when the experiment is conducted.
- Leave a space in front to sum up the work you have done in an experiment. Here there will be a short summary of what you did and why. Though it is in the beginning, still you need to write till the end.
- It is a good ethic to start with an introduction. Introduction is basically important for those who are reading your project. It includes a brief description about the experiment you are going to perform and its expected outcomes. An introduction answers to the following queries:
- Why you chose this experiment?
- The purpose of your chosen experiment
- Information and observations known beforehand about your experiment.
Getting into the main part
- Mention the reaction equation involved in performing the experiment. You will get this in your given lab manual or by your instructor. Reaction equation consists of reactants used and products formed along with a labelled diagram. It also contains the temperature and pressure required to carry out.
- Experiment section: Conduct your experiment and write exactly what you are performing. Never copy the whole thing from lab manual. Explain what happened to the reader while conducting it. Jot down every minutes details.
- Write down your results in a perfect format. At the end of your experiment, provide your reader with all the information. The format goes like:
- Amount of reactants taken and products formed
- Temperature and pressure used
- Catalyst used (if any)
- Melting of the products
- HNMR data
- Infrared spectroscopy data
- Analyse: In this part you need to write about how smoothly the experiment was conducted. Whether you got your expected results, if not why? Did the experiment match the hypothesis? Lastly, whether there was any problem faced while performing the experiment that might have affected the observations.
Finishing the project
Conclusion: write a short and precise conclusion that sums up whatever you learnt from this assignment and whether it was as you expected or not. Unlike in the results part, here you need to discuss about the broader aspects of the points illustrated in introduction.
Acknowledge your sources. Write an acknowledgement or bibliography that contains brief but detailed information about the sources used. You must at first thanks your teacher and instructor that is going to fetch you good grades, then write about your lab manual and also the books used or may be internet to prepare these.
It is time to utilise the blank space that was left behind. This abstract must not be written more than 200 words but should contain the basics about your whole experiment including the results that is going to give your reader an idea about the whole experiment without even reading the other parts. You may write this at the end but this must be included at the beginning of the project.
Moreover, students can even take help of online professional websites to make their projects superior and make positive stand in class.