POST-LAB (Report Format of EE335 ELECTRONICS II)

After each lab, you along with your lab partner, will writeup ‘a’ report carefully constructed to
express your major observations and findings. You and your lab partner will submit 1 report, as a
group, except unless stated otherwise. The length of the report will vary depending on the lab
and your findings. Keep in mind some basic principles of experiment – Could someone duplicate
your experiments upon reading your report?

Your report should touch upon all important observations and results, presenting as much
supporting detail as is necessary to support your conclusions and allow the reader to understand
the logic by which you obtained them or came to the conclusion. Assume that the reader of your
report knows nothing about your experiment and that he or she might wish to repeat it, based
only on your report. The intent of this portion of the lab experience is to prepare you for
presenting your findings to a scientific audience, an important skill if you become involved in
state-of-the-art technology or research in science and engineering.

Think of the report as a scientific essay. It will have a title and following sections:

• Introduction
• Procedure
• Results
• Data Analysis / Discussion
• Conclusion

A brief description of what should be included in each of these sections is included

below.

• Title. The title should summarize, as specifically as possible, the subject of the lab.
• Introduction. Your introductory paragraphs should include:
• Purpose: a single, concise statement of the major objective of the lab. i.e. what
questions are you trying to answer?
• Background: a brief summary of the topic being investigated, including any
information which may be necessary in order to understand your stated purpose of
the lab.
• The major results/findings of the lab exercise.

• Procedure. Include the information necessary to allow someone to repeat what you did
• What data did you measure and record? Include metadata (data about data) such
as the data source.
• Is it measured data or simulated data? If it is measured data, what instrument did
you use? What were the instrument settings? For simulated data, did you use the
measured component values or ideal values? Why? Include definitions of key
terms and anything else necessary for the reader to understand exactly what you
did.

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 • Observations and Results.
• What did you observe in each part? Include all observations made at the
suggestion of the lab exercises. Always include the units of physical quantities
and label axes of plots. Make sure it is clear whether data is ‘real’ or simulated.
Uses ‘real’ measured values or ideal values.
• Describe any relationships that you observed between variables.
• Where appropriate include figures, graphs, tables and calculations. DON’T embed
large amounts of data and/or calculations into the text of your report. Large data
tables may be included in an appendix if appropriate.

• Data Analysis / Discussion. This is one of the most important aspects of the lab
report. It is in this section that where you interpret your data and observations.
Use this section to show that you have a strong understanding of the topic.
INCLUDE LTSPICE SIMULATIONS.

• Give explanations for any relationships you observed. Were the

relationships as you expected from underlying physical principles?
• What are the important trends or statistics that you need to extract from
the data? Are data sets correlated? (i.e., the higher the current flowing in
R1, the hotter it gets ...)
• Support your ideas with specific, quantitative references to the results of
your analyses. How do ‘your observations’ lead to the conclusions?
• What are the main sources of uncertainty in interpreting your
observations?
• Address any interesting questions you may have had as you were working
through the lab exercises, as well any general questions included in the lab
exercises.
• Can you make any generalizations? Why or why not?

• Conclusion. Summarize your results, the main points of your discussion, and how they
relate to stated purpose of the lab. It is a good idea to include how the main points of your
discussion are connected, in order to demonstrate the overall significance of your
findings and the concepts you learned.

AFTER WRITING YOUR REPORT:

• Make sure your REPORT is clear to you. If you read it aloud to yourself or a friend, does
it make sense? Don't forget to use the spell-checker in your word processor!!
• Check to be sure you addressed all questions included in the lab exercise.
• Check to be sure all pertinent plots, graphs, etc., are readable, clear and included. Staple
all pages of the lab report together and Include Your Name and your Lab Partner names
and Section Number of your lab.

The appearance of your report makes a statement about you!!

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