Physics 215

Guidelines for Laboratory Reports

We will routinely do computational laboratories in this course. Learning how to write scientifically is one of the course goals. The following list is a set of `rules of thumb' to keep in mind as you write your reports. The order of the items does NOT reflect their importance! You should keep all of this ideas in mind when you write.

1. The standard outline of any scientific lab report is the following.
   1. Motivation and objectives.

   2. Methods, apparatus (not much in this course), and procedure.

   3. Results and analysis.

   4. Conclusions.

2. The written portion of the report should be short. Use figures, captions, derivations, sample calculations, tables, drawings, etc. The goal here is to focus on the things that are most important instead of generating a lot of text.

3. Whenever you write, you should keep your audience in mind. In this course, write so that another physics student who is not in the class can understand what you are doing.

4. Significant figures should be accurate throughout anything you write.

5. Build your report around your algorithms, calculations, and figures.

6. If you don't discuss it in the text, don't include it in the report.

7. Number the pages, figures, tables, and appendices and use those numbers when you refer to those items in the report.

8. Use proper scientific notation and symbols throughout the report. All reasonable word processors now have equation editors.

9. Use proper units everywhere.

10. Label all axes on plots and include a legend or its equivalent when you have multiple curves or data sets on a figure.

11. Don't contradict yourself.