Lab Report Guidelines

Engineers need to be able to write clear, concise reports. Writing reports provides you with
opportunities to develop report writing skills. The following specification for reports makes
concessions to the limitations of the unit and to the availability of time for report preparation.

Each report should comply with the following format. Any major deviations from this format
will result in a lower grade.

Format:
All reports must be printed on single-side A4 size papers. Use 12-point Times New Roman
font for the text and 1.5 line spacing. No hard cover binding is required but simply use
stapler.

Title page:
• Title
• Group name
• Semester and year
• Date of work done
• Date of submission
• Name of lecturer/instructor
• The following statement must be included and signed by all group members (full
name, student ID and signature)
“I declare that this report is solely my own work. All contributions made by
others have been duly acknowledged.”
Failure to include this declaration may result in a zero mark.

Engineering Materials 100: Electrochemistry and Corrosion Laboratory

Specific Instructions

This is a group report worth of 10% of the total unit marks. There should be about 4-5
members in one group (refer to instructions from the lab instructor). Deadline for report
submission is one week after the respective lab session. (e.g. if the lab session is conducted
on 16 Aug, the deadline will be 23 Aug by 4.00 pm). Please submit the report to the
respective lab instructor.

There will be 4 experiments in the report; each experiment will be given 25 marks
Experiment 1: Corrosion of Metal Nails in Agar
Experiment 2: Measurement of Cell Potentials
Experiment 3: Reverse Polarity of a Simple Cell
Experiment 4: Effect of Concentration Differences on Cell Potentials
In each experiment, students are required to present their report in following format

1. Introduction (5 marks)

Provide a short introduction on the purpose and background for the experiment

Specify objective(s) of the experiment in this section

3 marks will be given to those who refer solely to the lab manual.

2 marks extra will be given to those who add extra related information.

2. Procedure (5 marks)

Include a neat list of chemicals and equipment needed to perform the experiment

Include any changes to the procedure from what is described in the lab manual or any
parts of the procedure not in the lab manual

Use past tense and passive voice in complete sentences (e.g. The electrodes were
cleaned with emery paper and placed in the appropriate solution.)

4 marks will be given to those who refer solely to the lab manual.

1 mark extra will be given to those who add extra related information (flow chart or
diagram).

3. Results (5 marks)

Present the measured data using appropriate significant figures and units

Report any observable occurrences in the experiment (colour changes, precipitation,
gas evolution, etc.)

Show at least one example of any calculations performed

5 marks will be given according to the accuracy and rationality of results.

4. Discussion (7 marks)

You should refer back to the tables and calculations (if any) in the earlier section as
you discuss your results; discuss possible trends in data and/or graphs (if any)

Make comparison of experimental and theoretical results (if any)

Always include a discussion of sources of error and possible improvements to the
experiment; this is a very important part of the discussion.

5 marks will be given to those who answer the questions in the lab manual (if any) or
discuss the results accordingly.

2 marks extra will be given to those who add extra related information.

5. Conclusions (3 marks)

Summary of the most important results that have been obtained as well as the most
important concepts that have been discussed

3 marks will be given accordingly

6. References (if any)

Full mark for each experiment will be 25 marks

Total marks for 4 experiment = 25 × 4 = 100 marks
Convert 100 marks to 10 full marks
x out of 10 full marks is the final marks for this report