Writing Checklist for Laboratory Reports

Teaching Resources Writing Guidelines Writing Exercises Writing Courses

This page presents a checklist for the writing of laboratory reports. Students use this checklist in the revision stage of their reports. Included in this checklist are links to the "Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students" (WG) and page numbers for readings in >The Craft of Scientific Writing (CSW).

Table 1. Checklist for Laboratory Reports Structure Does the Abstract summarize effectively? (CSW, 20-24) Does the Introduction orient the audience? (CSW, 24-30) Do Procedures and Results and Discussion contain appropriate information? Does the Conclusion analyze from an overall perspective? (CSW, 41-45) Are all Appendices referred to in the text? (CSW, 49) Are smooth transitions made into all sections and subsections? (CSW, 53-59) Language Are details specified to an appropriate and consistent depth? (CSW, Ch 4) Is needless complexity avoided? (CSW, Ch 5) Are unfamiliar terms properly defined? (CSW, Ch 7) Do sentence rhythms vary? (CSW, Ch 9) Illustration Is each illustration clearly named, captioned, and referenced in the text? (CSW, Ch 11) Format Are headings and subheadings formatted properly? Are figure captions and table headings properly done? Mechanics In the text, are sentences used? (Grammar #1) Are subject-verb disagreement and faulty parallelism avoided? (Grammar #2) Are the major rules for commas followed? (Punctuation #1) Are common words properly used? (Usage #1)

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