General guidelines for lab report writing

Overview
This is a general guideline for you to successfully write the lab report that needs to be submitted after
the laboratory session. Writing a good lab report is important since each lab accounts for 5% of final
overall marks for the module. A good report must document your findings and communicate them
clearly. In order to achieve this, the report is divided into several section where in each you will have to
state specific findings. You should be able to write the lab report in such a way that your comprehension
of the concepts gained from the observations and data are reflected through your writing. Just presenting
the data and observations is insufficient to achieve a good grade for your report. You should explain
how these experimental data are generated, if there are differences, why they occurred and how these
affected your experiment and principles the experiment is designed to explore. This format will help you
to achieve these but you need to understand that a good report is only produced through careful
organization of ideas and expressing them in a coherent manner.

You should have following topics in your report in the given order;
1. Title
2. Objectives
3. Introduction
4. Theory
5. Materials and apparatus
6. Procedure
7. Observations (attach the observation sheet)
8. Calculations
9. Results
10. Discussion
11. Conclusion
12. References

* Refer Annex 1 attached at the end of the document for more details in topic order, content of each
topic, marking guide, and page margins.
** Sample given below is only for reference purpose.

Please note the following characteristics of the sample below.

Font, font size, justified text, topics, bullets, in-text citations, references, captioning of figures and tables,
etc.
Page borders: left 25 mm,
top, right, and bottom: 10 mm
Referencing is a very important part in your report. Please make use of given Microsoft Word Addin or
any other tool for proper referencing. Generally accepted reference format is Harvard style.

.Sample _ Start.
TITLE
Impact Toughness of Metallic Materials
OBJECTIVE

Study the principles of brittle fracture in mild steels

Understand the impact toughness of materials with different heat and strengthening treatments
Interpret obtained experimental data for the selection of engineering materials

INTRODUCTION
Tensile testing is a destructive test process used to provide information about the strength and ductility
of a material or to meet acceptance test requirements. The tensile test, also known as a tension test,
involves applying an ever-increasing load to a test sample up to the point of failure. The process creates
a stress/strain curve showing how the material reacts throughout the tensile test. The data generated
during tensile testing is used to determine mechanical properties of materials and provides a quantitative
measurement of tensile strength, yield strength and ductility or stiffness. (Pytel, 2014)
Table 1: Fracture toughness of Materials (Pytel, 2014)
Material
Law carbon steel
Medium Carbon Steel
High carbon steel

Toughness (ASTM E23) at 25 0C (J)

35
25
15

Figure 1: Fracture Surface (Hearn, 1998)

REFERENCES
Hearn, E.J. (1998) Mechanics of Materials, London: B&H.
Pytel, A. (2014) Mechanical Properties of Materials, New York: McGraw Hill.
..Sample _ End.

General feedback

Following common mistakes were observed

Common Mistake
Irrelevant content and statements on the
cover page
Group Number
Additional page after the cover page
Wrong formatting (Font, font size, justify,
etc.)
No page numbers

Corrective Action
Remove the unnecessary text without changing the
main structure of the cover page
Clearly, state the full number in the relevant box.
(i.e. UG2A)
Please do not include
Please stick to the format given.
Please include

Captions for tables and references

Refer the sample below (top of the table)

Captions for figures and references

Refer the sample below (Below the figure)

Multi-colour figures

Black and white is preferred

Should be written in past passive third person
singular
Please follow the format given

Procedure in past tense

Wrong borders
Using several types of fonts

Different page sizes

Use only Times new roman, 12 pt, 1.15 line spacing

Discussion should be more than 900 words and
perfectly relevant to the practical. In text citations
and referencing is encouraged and will secure the
full marks.
Must be Harvard- Exeter (1st edition). The add-in
rar file is uploaded in the Moodle
This should be perfectly in line with the objectives
of the practical.
No additional topics required. Adding subtopics for
the given main topics is allowed.
Only A4 sheets allowed

Written in both sides of the paper

Write Only in one side of the paper

Poor discussion content

Wrong referencing format

Wrong conclusion
Additional topics

Annex 1

TITLE
Title as appear in the lab sheet

OBJECTIVE
State what is going to be investigated.

INTRODUCTION
Give a brief introduction for the practical.

THEORY
State the relevant theory behind the practical and state any equation related to the experiment.

MATERIALS AND APPARATUS

Give the list of the materials and apparatus used in the experiment.

PROCEDURE
Should be written in,

past passive, 3rd person

point form

OBSERVATIONS
Attach the observation sheet and graphs (if applicable). Graphs should be in one view in two pages.
Make use of the sample observation sheet in the courseweb.

CALCULATIONS
Show the calculations along with the assumptions etc.

RESULTS
Organize results into tables and graphs, where appropriate.

DISCUSSION
In this section discuss matters relating to all aspects of the experiment and how it relates to things beyond
the experiment, mainly focus your discussion to the topics mention in the lab sheet. Other than that the
following questions can be addressed, where appropriate

What do the results show?

Is there a relationship between the variables? Describe any trends.
Do any of the results appear to be inconsistent? Can you think of a reason why?
Were there any sources of error during the experiment? What effect could they have had?
How could the experiment design be improved to reduce error and/or get better results?
Can you think of a real-life use or example of these results?

Discussion should be started in a new page.

CONCLUSION
State the final conclusion of the experiment based on your observations.

REFERENCES
State at least 3 references. These could be books, journals, research papers or websites. Use Harvard
referencing style.

Important things about your report.

Use only A4 pages. Single sided.

Font- Times New Roman
Font Size- 12
Line spacing 1.15
Use borders, which is given in this document, for each page.
Marking Criteria:
Calculation and Discussion 60%
Conclusion 10%
Procedure - 10%
Overall structure and content 20%
30% from total marks will be deducted for late submission