Lab Report Guide

Lab Report GuideIntroductionThe purpose of this short document is to illustrate for you the basic principles of reportwriting for the MAE 211 course. The instructions in this handout, if properly followed,will allow you to become proficient with what can be the difficult task of writinglaboratory reports. Be aware that knowledge in technical writing is a critical capabilityfor your future professional life.General GuidelinesSome labs require that more than one report be written, or that the overall format of thelab report be applied to several experiments. It is important to read over the lab guide tomake sure your lab report contains all specified requirements designated for each labreport.It is important that lab reports are turned in on time. The reports that you will submit willbe treated as formal documents. As such, it is extremely unprofessional to arrive late or toturn in a report late, for any reason. This includes faulty printers and corrupt or unsavedfiles. The penalty is a loss of 20% of the possible grade per day late. The deadline forreports is 5:00 pm the day of your lab section and it is essential that if a report is going tobe turned in late, or after lab has concluded, it be handed directly to a TA, so propersignatures can be made verifying when the lab report was turned in.As well, it is important to note that when grading lab reports, length or wordiness ofreports is not considered. As you are writing a technical report, it is imperative that yourwriting be complete, concise, and accurate, not necessarily lengthy. Each of your reportsshould fall somewhere between 2-5 pages, depending on the lab experiments andrequirements. Particular font and paragraph formatting will not be limited, though it isimportant that your reports look professional and have reasonably-sized fonts andlayouts.Your lab reports should be written to a person who is an engineer, but who is not familiarwith the particular lab you are doing. Include enough detail that the reader can visualizeyour setup, assess your methods and understand clearly what you discovered. The writeupsare to demonstrate that you understand the objectives, methods and outcomes of theexperiments and should be done in your own words. Do not copy and paste sections ofthe lab instructions into your report.Each laboratory report for MAE 211 should have the following sections:-Cover PageThe cover page should be neatly formatted and include the name, number, anddate of the lab, the lab section (e.g. Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday) and thenames of all lab partners.

-IntroductionThis should be a short introduction to the lab or particular lab experiment. Itshould have a concise statement of the objective of the experiment as well as anyother pertinent information about the lab.-Materials ListThis section should be a listing of all the materials needed to complete theexperiment. This list will often be found in the lab guides. However, someexperiments require you to design your own setup, so it is important to list allmaterials used in your setup in case it ever needs to be recreated.-ProcedureThis part of the report should lay out the procedure followed through the labexperiments, in your own words. It is acceptable to write this section in eitherbullet/list format or paragraph format, as long as it completely recalls all stepstaken during lab.-Data Collected/ResultsThis section should include all data collected in the lab as well as any results orfindings of each experiment. This is where any questions asked during the lab orrequired results should be answered or explained. It is also important to state anyreasons for your results not matching theoretical results or any inconsistencieswith your data and possibly reasons for these inconsistencies. Illustrations orpictures taken during lab should be included here to help explain any setupscreated or results from experiments, and may be embedded directly in the text orreferenced to an Appendix. Either is acceptable.-ConclusionThis should be a conclusion stating the overall findings of the lab and how theyrelate to the lab objectives. Please also include recommendations for possibleimprovements of the lab.