Laboratory Notebook and Report Format

Laboratory Notebook

You should keep all  your laboratory work (even the mistakes) in a single notebook.  Typed sections of your laboratory report and graphical outputs should be stapled neatly into this notebook.

Organization of the Laboratory Report

Introductory Section:

The report should have a brief introductory section which states, in a few sentences, the main purposes of the laboratory assignment (e.g., what were the essential objectives of the assignment, what are general type of circuits you studied, what kind of measurement did you make, etc.)

Measurements Section:

 It should  have measurements section which contain all your results and discussions in a clear and concise form.  You are free to select any format you like for but section, but you should follow the following guidelines:

Any discussion of or tabulation of data on a given circuit should be preceded by a clearly labeled circuit diagram.

 

All data should be presented in tabular form.  A single measurement should presented on a separate line and not embedded in the middle of a paragraph.  Also, put all measurements in a context.  For example, don't simple write "Vout = 5 volts" without referring to a circuit and specifying the input conditions.

 

Graphs should have clearly labeled axes (e.g., V, I, t, …) as well as scaling tics.

 

You should answer all questions in the lab handout.  Indicate clearly in your report where  you are answering handout questions and which question you are answering.

 

If your report contains a sentence such as "At 50 kHz the output was attenuated by 20 percent and lagged the input by 90 degrees", then it is expected that your report also include a graph showing this.  You only have to include a single representative graph or diagram for a family of measurements.  If you were measuring attenuation and phase difference at a variety of frequencies then you only have to include a graph for a single frequency unless told otherwise.

Do not include in your report a detailed explanation of how you went about doing the lab (e.g., "First I hooked the resistor into the proto board  and then connected up the power supply……).  Unless specifically asked in the handout to include something about your procedure, don't!

Concluding Section:

 Your report  should  have a concluding section which qualitatively summarizes the laboratory assignment.  If something didn't work the way it was supposed to, use this section as a place to explain what you think may have been the problem.  If you observed anything unusual or unexpected, again, try and explain it here.  One should be able to read this section by itself and have a good general idea of what happened in your experiment.

Late Report Policy

If you hand in a late report without having first discussed it with one of the instructors, 50% of your lab credit will be deducted for each day that it is late!
 

Prepared by R. Victor Jones

Last revised:  October 8, 1998