Laboratory Reports

One really nice thing about writing lab reports is that they almost always follow a very specific format, so there's no question about what information goes first, second, third, etc. Lab reports generally have seven main parts, but always following the guidelines/rubric provided by your instructor:

1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Introduction
4. Materials and Methods
5. Results
6. Discussion or Conclusion
7. References or Works Cited

Title

The title is a brief summary of the main ideas in the paper. It should be between 5 and 12 words long. If you studied a particular species in your experiment, make sure you include that in the title. If the study was a field study done in a specific location, that should also be mentioned. The title should have enough details that any person could read it and know just what the study was about. But you don't need too many details, since you'll be talking about them in the paper itself.

For example, a study on the numbers of bird species found in Hartford parks might be called "Species of birds in Hartford city parks." It's very simple and to the point.

The abstract is a short summary of the main ideas found in the lab report. It should include 1) the purpose of the study or the question being addressed by the study, 2) the procedures used in the study, 3) the major results of the study, and 4) any conclusions drawn by the author(s). The abstract should generally be between 100 and 200 words in length.