CaliforniaStateUniversitySacramento -- Department of Civil Engineering
CE 135: Hydraulics Laboratory
General Requirements for a Formal Lab Report
Cover Page (a.k.a. Title Sheet)
Include: title of the study; your name; the name of your firm and its logo.
Executive Summary (In a paper for an engineering journal, this would be the Abstract.)
Summarize the experiment, its purpose, objectives and results.
Approximately one to three paragraphs long for a report of this size.
The Executive Summary (or Abstract) should contain only items selected from the body of the report (not the appendices) and should contain nothing that isn’t mentioned in the report. A common mistake is to include conclusions or recommendations in the Executive Summary that are not documented in the report.
The summary (and abstract) should be able to stand alone, in case it is read separately from the report. (Executive Summaries are often the only parts of a report read by higher management, and abstracts are often disseminated in electronic databases where the whole text is not available.) It should include the title and author of the report.
Sometimes students confuse the Executive Summary with the Introduction. The Executive Summary needs to reflect the whole report. A recommended practice is to write it after you have finished the rest of the report.
Executive Summaries sometimes contain tables and/or figures, but only of final results and only if needed. Data tables would almost never be put into an executive summary. Exercise caution; err onthe side of leaving the table or figure out. (Abstracts of journal articles never contain tables or figures.)
Introduction
A description of the study or experiment objectives.
A short description of the scope and/or kinds of results that are sought (i.e., your goal).
Appropriate background material such as who the client is.
(In other words, why are you doing this, generally what are you doing, and what information is the study going to generate? Set the reader up as to what to expect.)
Procedures
Describe the experimental set-up and procedure in enough detail for the reader to judge the quality of your work. This should not be a list of instructions as contained in the class handouts. (You can include that in an appendix if you wish.) The description should be detailed enough that a professional could set up a similar experiment.
A sketch of the experimental setup should be included and key components should be described in the text.
Results and Discussion
Summarize your results in tables and graphs. These are directly related to the study purposes or objectives. Extraneous and intermediate results should be omitted. (Put them in an appendix if you want them in the report simply for the sake of documentation.)
Graphs should be done with computer software (except when you are overlaying your data on a published graph). The graph should be self-explanatory and require a minimum of reference to the rest of the report. This means that any unusual parameters should be defined on the graph in terms of readily understood variables. Sometimes a simple sketch in one corner of the graph is helpful. If more than one variable is displayed on a graph, each should be distinguished by a separate symbol (small circle, triangle, etc., showing experimental points). Curves that show a relationship derived from an equation should contain no symbols; instead, the equation of the curve should be shown. Experimental data are usually presented as symbols without connecting lines. If a graph must be presented so that the page must be turned to read it, U.S. practice is to turn clockwise; i.e., the top of the graph is on the left edge closest to the binding.
Every table and graph must be labeled clearly to make them understandable without reference to the text.
The results section should contain a description of the results with appropriate references to the tables and graphs. You need to explain what the tables and graphs are depicting. Don’t simply say, “The results of the experiment are contained in the following….” Describe in words what the graphic is showing. For example, say something like, “The plot of y vs. x shows that y increases as a power function with increasing x.”
Interpret and describe the meaning and significance of the results.
Often, especially in engineering journals, the "Results" and "Discussion" are separated. The results are presented first, with the text pointing out important results, but not interpreting them. The discussion follows, with interpretations and integration of results from different parts of a complex experiment.
Other issues that might be included in the discussion (as apprpriate):
Any experimental or procedural issues that bear on the results should be discussed here rather than in the Procedures section.
Whether or not the results verify or contradict accepted theory.
Comparing the values found in the experiment to those in references.
Comparing and contrasting the results from this study with those from other studies.
Conclusions
The conclusions should come from your experimental results. Refer to the theories and previous work only as your work confirms or causes you to reject them.
The conclusions should relate to the same issues identified in the purposes of the experiment.
Be careful to avoid concluding anything beyond what is supported in the report. No new discussion or data should be added; just select from the body of the report.
References
Include all works referred to in the text.
You can include other works not quoted, but separate them from the main reference list and indicate that they are “Additional Sources” or “Further Reading”. You don’t want a reader looking through the text for a reference that you did not use in the text but did include in your list.
Appendices
Detailed calculations, original data, etc., are usually not included in the report body, but should be available if the reader wants more information. For reports in this class, include in the appendix your lab data sheets, samples of all major calculations, and printouts of spreadsheets used in calculations.
It is often helpful to organize extra materials into several sections (Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.)
Some General Suggestions for Lab Reports
Reports should be typed and double-spaced. Use one side of the paper only.
Use engineering paper for sketches and calculations, unless printed from a computer program.
Present data and calculations in tabular form when possible. Use only 3 significant figures for results and fewer if the experimental precision is less. You may carry more during calculations to reduce round-off errors, but results should indicate the precision of the data.
Write the general form of each equation and define all variables one time, including the units of measurement.
Write your report with the reader in mind. Assume you are an inexperienced engineer reporting results to your supervisor. If the report is hard to follow, it will seem your work is inadequate.
Tables
Table number (Arabic numeral) and title should be at the top, in boldface.
Headings of columns should also be in boldface.
The whole table should be enclosed in a box.
Interior lines and the use of special fonts for subheadings are up to the author. Don’t get carried away. Usually simpler is better in terms of readability.
Note the format for numbers (leading zeros), scientific notation, and footnotes in the example below.
Unless the table is very big, it should be integrated into the text.
Spreadsheet printouts normally should be included in the appendix, rather than the main text.
Table 1: Comparison of Measured and Literature Values
Parameter / Copper / GalvanizedAbsolute roughness (ft)
Measured / 4x10-4 / 0.035
Literature1 / 2x10-4 / 0.004
Hazen-Williams Coefficient
Measured / 150 / 80
Literaure2 / 130-150 / 100-120
1 Ohlinger (1999)
2 Johnston (2000), Hwang (1998)
Figures
Figure number (Arabic numeral) and title should be at the bottom, in boldface type.
Arial font (default in most Excel packages) is OK.
Numbers on axes should be 10 point, plain text, with as few “zeros” as possible.
Axis titles should be 12 point, plain text.
It is preferable to integrate figures with the text, but if you run into excessive computer problems on this score, printing the figure on a separate page by itself is acceptable.
Legend and other notes on the figure should be 10-point type. If you select the legend box twice (slowly), you can delete the entries for the best-fit lines.
Use the fill command with the equations and the legend box to give the effect shown below.
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