MAE244 REPORT b.

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A LAB REPORT

Many young engineers find that writing a good lab report is a difficult task and those who have
“mastered” this task found that it took hours of practice. Report writing is an important part of
any project. Its purpose is to tell other people, not nearly as familiar about the experiment as the
experimenter, what was done, how it was done, why it was done, and having done it, what the
results and conclusions are (Doyle, 1987). It also helps the experimenter to organize his thoughts
and is a permanent record of the work that can be referenced at a later date. The lab report should
be concise, legible and well organized. The format provided below is designed to help students
learn how to communicate results from the experiments performed in this class. It will be
followed throughout the semester.

Lab Report Format

1. Cover Sheet
a) Experiment Title
b) Experimenter’s Name
c) Group Number
d) Course Section and Instructor’s Name
e) Date of experiment performed

2. Introduction (1 page double-spaced maximum length)

a) Background information as to why the experiment is being performed
b) Brief review of theory
c) Clearly state the questions (or objectives) that are intended to be answered in
this experiment.
d) Briefly describe the experiment that will be used to answer the questions posed.

3. Schematic (1 page per experiment)

The schematic is the only reference you will have as to how the experiment was set
up and performed. It is the "experimental procedure". Therefore, it should be
descriptive and representative of the experiment. These following guidelines must
be followed:
a) Draw the set-up (3-D drawing is encouraged)
b) Label all equipment
c) Draw all connections using straight edge
d) Where multiple connections are required, add notes to avoid confusion
e) Add notes insofar as it is necessary to explain procedures that are not
readily apparent.
f) Additional pages of detailed drawings (e.g. specimens) can be added as
necessary but should be kept to a minimum. Lab handout drawings may
also be included in the appendix and referenced as necessary.

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4. Analysis of Results
This section should include answers to the questions posed in the Report section of
the lab handout. The section is divided into two sub-headings:

a) Data Reduction - here an outline is presented of the methods used to reduce

the data. Equations should be introduced, followed by an explanation of each term
in the equation followed by a reference to a sample calculation in the appendix.

Example: The bending stress was calculated using the equation from simple beam
theory
Mc
σ= (1)
I

(1)

where σ is the bending stress, M is the applied moment, c is the distance from the
neutral axis to the point of interest and I is the moment of inertia. The moment is
calculated using .......(etc.). Sample calculation #1 of bending stress is given in
the appendix C.

b) Comparisons - Graphs and tables requested from the report section are
included in this section. Comparisons with expected results or with other
experimental results also should be placed in this section. See comments on tables
and graphs in "Important Tips on Writing a Lab Report."

5. Discussion
The Discussion section is for evaluating the experiment by discussing the results,
the comparisons and the limitations. To aid in preparing the discussion, the Report
section of the lab handouts have questions in Italics that should be addressed in
this section. The answers to these questions as well as general conclusions and
limitations that need be added should be placed in the following sub-headings.

a) Conclusions - clearly state the conclusions to the questions posed in the

Introduction as derived from the experiment. The conclusion should be well
supported by the results. As an example, "Good correlation (r = 0.99, or %
difference < 5%) between theory and experimental results indicate that linear beam
theory is a good assumption for the aluminum beam in bending." The questions
posed in the introduction would have been "Is linear beam theory applicable for a
thin aluminum beam in bending?” The section must also discuss answers to the
questions posed in the report section of the handout.

b) Limitations and Experimental Error - Limitations to the experiment and

theory as well as possible reasons for experimental error should be discussed.

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Limitations consist of those things the experimenter would have liked to show by
experiment or by analysis but were not able to due to the limitations of the
experiment or the theory. Experimental error can consist of two types: (1) those
that are a result of the experimental design (e.g. boundary conditions,
misalignment, load rate, etc.) or limitations of the equipment used (e.g. inadequate
number of digits for measuring resistance when high precision is required); and (2)
those types caused by the experimenter (e.g. improperly recording data, bumping
the test fixture, etc.). The second type of error will be minimized by proper
laboratory technique. Therefore, when errors are discussed, reports should focus
on error type (1) and not "human error", unless the human error is clearly
indicated.

This section should also address questions pertaining to specific questions in the
Report section that pertain to limitations and error.

6. References
List any pertinent references (if any) that may have been used in preparation of
the report.

7. Appendix
This section contains all supplementary material that is referred to in the report,
such as handouts, raw data in the data sheet, sample calculations, and in general,
anything that would clutter up the report if it were located elsewhere.

THE ABOVE REPORT GUIDELINE MUST BE STRICTLY ADHERED TO OR

THE REPORT WILL BE RETURNED WITH NO GRADE!!