10.6 Lab Reports
Whether your research takes place in a university lab or on some remote worksite, you will often have to write up the results of your work in a lab report. Most basically, this report will describe the original hypothesis your work attempts to test, the methodology you used to test it, your observations and results of your testing, your analysis and discussion of what this data means, and your conclusions.
In an academic context, especially in early courses, you are often asked to replicate the results of others rather than conduct your own original research. This is usually meant to instill an understanding of the scientific method into students, and teach students the proper use of instruments, techniques, processes, data analysis, and documentation. Once you demonstrate your ability to understand and apply the scientific method in these contexts, you will be able to design your own research studies and develop new knowledge. Your reports then become the way you pass on this new knowledge to the field and to society at large.
For scientists and engineers to make valuable contributions to the sum of human knowledge, they must be able to convince readers that their findings are valid (can be replicated) and valuable. Thus, the way that you write these reports can impact the credibility and authority of your work; people will judge your work partly on how you present it. Yes, even lab reports have a persuasive edge and must make careful use of rhetorical strategies. Careless writing, poor organization, ineffective document design, and lack of attention to convention may cast doubt on your authority and expertise, and thus on the value of your work.
Knowledge Check
Science and Rhetoric
Some aspects of your report that might require you to think rhetorically are exemplified in how you approach the following questions:
- Why is this research important? How does it solve a problem or contribute in some way to expanding human knowledge?
- What have other researchers already discovered about this? How are you contributing to this conversation?
- What gaps are there in our knowledge about this topic?
- Why have you chosen this methodology to test your hypothesis? What limitations might it have?
- How and why do you derive these inferences from the data you have collected?
- What further research should be done? Why?
You can call on the assistance of LLMs for this part of the analysis, though, of course, it’s always better to do it yourself to develop critical thinking skills and expand your breadth and depth of knowledge. LLMs and genAI lab report writing tools can help you develop additional insights once you have a good grasp of the significance of what you are doing.
Lab reports are often written using the past tense, 3rd person, and passive verb constructions when describing what was done and what was observed. Why do you suppose that is?
Strict adherence to this style has in recent years been relaxed somewhat, and you might find more science writing that uses first person and active rather than passive verb constructions. Can you think of reasons why this is changing?
Writing a Lab Report
Your report will be based on the work you have done in the lab. Therefore, you must have a plan for keeping careful notes on what you have done, how you have done it, and what you observed. AI lab report applications are available to add efficiency to the process of record keeping and charting. Many researchers often keep a notebook with them in the lab, sometimes with pre-designed tables or charts for recording the data they know they will be observing (you might be given a lab manual to use while completing a particular experiment to record your observations and data in a pre-organized format). However, AI lab report software now enables the rapid transformation of data into digital forms so that it can be quickly analyzed in the context of current and previous studies. Whichever method you choose to use, plan ahead so that you can capture as much information as possible during your research; don’t try to rely only on memory to record these important details.
(How to Write a Lab Report, 2018)
Knowledge Check
How you choose the content and format for your report will depend on your audience and purpose. Students must make sure to read lab manuals and instructions carefully to determine what is required; if writing for publication, make sure to follow the submission guidelines of the publication you are sending it to. Lab reports typically contain the elements outlined below.
Title: Craft a descriptive and informative title that will enable readers to decide if this interests them and will allow keywords to be abstracted in indexing services. Ask your instructor about specific formatting requirements regarding title pages, etc.
Abstract: Write a summary of your report that mirrors your report structure (Hypothesis, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion) in condensed form—roughly one sentence per section. Ideally, sum up your important findings. For the abstract, you could ask an LLM to create the abstract for you. To do this, you would have to upload your completed report to the LLM for summarization.
Introduction: Establish the context and significance of your work, its relevance in the field, and the hypothesis or question your study addresses in the Introduction. Give a brief overview of your methodology for testing your hypothesis and why it is appropriate. If necessary for your readers, provide a specialized theoretical framework, background or technical knowledge to help them understand your focus and how it contributes to the field. Your instructor may describe a target audience for you; pay attention to that and write for that audience. More detailed reports may require a literature review section. AI lab report applications will be significant copilots as you develop your introduction.
Materials and Methods: This section has two key purposes. First, it must allow any reader to perfectly replicate your method; therefore, you must provide a thorough factual description of what you used and how you conducted your experiment. Second, it must persuade the reader that the chosen methodology and the materials are appropriate and valid for testing your hypothesis and will lead to credible and valid results. This section will generally include 1) a list of all materials needed (which may include sub-lists, diagrams, and other graphics), and 2) a detailed description of your procedure, presented chronologically.
Results: The Results section presents the raw data that you generated in your experiment and provides the evidence you will need to form conclusions about your hypothesis. Present only the data that is relevant to your results (but if you omit data, you may have to explain why it is not relevant). You can organize this section based on chronology (following your methodology) or on the importance of data in proving (or negating) the hypothesis (most important to least important). Present data visually whenever possible (in tables, graphs, flowcharts, etc.), and help readers understand the context of your data. Make sure you present the data honestly and ethically; do not distort or obscure data to make it better fit your hypothesis. If data is inconclusive or contradictory, be honest about that. In the Results section, you should avoid interpreting or explaining your data, as this belongs in your Discussion section.
Discussion: The Discussion section includes your analysis and interpretation of the data you presented in the Results section in terms of how well it supports your original hypothesis. Start with the most important findings. It is perfectly fine to acknowledge that the data you have generated is problematic or fails to support the hypothesis. This points the way for further research. If your findings are inconsistent, try to suggest possible reasons for this. AI lab report applications can assist by analyzing your data and offering some interpretation based on your hypothesis, but be reminded that you are the best one to offer context-relevant interpretations informed by the research you have done and that is relevant to your particular study.
Conclusion: In one or two short paragraphs, create the Conclusion to review the overall purpose of your study and the hypothesis you tested; then summarize your key findings and the important implications. This is your opportunity to persuade the audience of the significance of your work. The AI lab report application will be able to complete this task but again review and revise the conclusion.
Acknowledgments: In a brief Acknowledgements paragraph, formally express appreciation for any assistance you have received while preparing the report (financial/funding support, help from colleagues or your institution, etc.).
References: In References, list all references you have cited in your report (such as those you may have included in a literature review in your introduction, or sources that help justify your methodology). Check with your instructor or publication guidelines for which citation style to use. An AI lab report application can help you with this, but because of the tendency of AI to create fake references, be sure to verify each for accuracy and relevance.
Appendices: Any information that does not fit within the body sections, but still adds valuable information to your report, can be placed in an appendix. Whereas your Results section may present summarized data, the full data tables may appear in an appendix. You may also include logs, calculations, or notes on analytical methods. Be sure to refer to your appendices in the body of your report to signal where readers can find additional information. You may include more than one appendix: Appendix A, Appendix B, etc. They are not numbered.
Take a look at this University of Toronto information page on lab reports, which offers examples of the various components discussed above.
How you write up the results of a scientific experiment will generally follow the formulaic pattern described above and shown in Figure 10.6.2, but this may vary depending on audience and purpose. As a student, you are often writing to demonstrate to your instructor that you have mastered the knowledge and skills required in a particular course. But remember that science writing generally focuses on the observable results, not on your “learning experience.” Your report should include what anyone doing this experiment might observe and conclude; these do not typically include personal reflections. In the professional academic world, your report may have to pass through a rigorous peer-review process before being published in a scholarly journal. As a professional, your work may result in the development of products and services that will be used by the public, so documenting your process and findings has financial, safety, and legal implications. It is therefore critical that your writing is accurate and ethical.
Knowledge Check
Cloud-Based Lab Notebooks
While it is essential for any researcher working in laboratories to know sound experimental practices and standard methods for reporting their work, many laboratories are making use of cloud-based and AI-enhanced reporting tools which make it more efficient to document work and results and share progress with lab colleagues and across various departments. Depending on which discipline you are working in, you may find yourself working with any one of the following cloud-based lab notebooks (Microsoft Copilot, 2025):
- Benchling for bioresearch, biopharmaceuticals, and agritech
- Labguru for biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals
- Labarchives for chemistry and biotechnology
- Scinote for biochemistry, medical devices, agritech; includes SOP management
Some of these applications also connect directly with lab equipment to capture data, seamlessly transferring them to the notebook for review and storage. Other applications will also automatically track materials and other resources and signal when they are running low. They will also help to track project work and help the team to stay aligned with regulatory requirements. Ai-enhanced tools will also use the information that has been inputted into the notebook to generate the lab reports. Your knowledge of research standards, regulatory requirements, experimental design, as well as the subject overall will enable you to review those reports for accuracy.
Additional Resources
For a fun example of a process report that is similar in many ways to a lab report, see Drafting Behind Big Rigs – Mythbusters Report (.pdf)
When evaluating scientific literature that you read, you might find the following TED-Ed video by David H. Schwartz helpful: Not all Scientific Studies are Created Equal.
References
Apologia. (2018). How to write a lab report [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR28zf2Aiwo
Microsoft Copilot. (2025). Common tools for creating lab reports. Prompted on June 17, 2025.
Ewald, T. (2017). Writing in the technical fields: A practical guide (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
ScienceBuddies. (n.d.). What is the scientific method? Broadcom Foundation, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-fair/steps-of-the-scientific-method
