SelfGuide

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SECTION THREE : Introduction

Establishing a context for the lab

Step 1: Revise your answer to PreLab question 1 in one or two paragraphs. Begin the Introduction with 1 or 2 sentences clearly stating what scientific concept the lab is about. Then use the rest of your answer to question 1 to complete the paragraph with information about the scientific concept. Revise your answer so that it includes only the information that relates specifically to this lab. If you have a lot of information, make two paragraphs. Note any citations you use here for including in the References section of your report.

More Help:

  • If you are having trouble writing a good opening sentence for the lab report, you can say something like: "This laboratory experiment focuses on X…"; "This laboratory experiment is about X…" ; "This lab is designed to help students learn about, observe, or investigate, X…." Or begin with a definition of the scientific concept: "X is a theory that…."
  • Once you have your opening sentence, you are ready to complete the opening paragraph by telling what you know about the scientific concept. The point is to show your lab instructor that you have a good grasp of the scientific concept. Revise the rest of Question 1 by:
    • Focusing it so that it contains information about the concept that is most clearly related to the lab procedure (not everything there is to know about the concept)
    • Incorporating additional relevant information about the concept you may have learned since doing the PreLab.
    • Changing it so that the scientific concept is appropriate to the lab (this would apply if all or parts of what you wrote about the scientific concept in the PreLab are wrong for this lab).
  • If you have a lot to say about the scientific concept, use more than one paragraph.
  • This part of the Introduction is typically written in present tense.

For more advanced labs:

If you are writing a lab report that is more like a full scientific paper, you may need to do more research using the Internet and library. With your teacher's guidance, you should search the recent scientific literature to find other research in this area of study. Summarize that research in a paragraph or so, stating what the general findings have been and using those findings to describe the current knowledge in the area (such a "review of the literature" is typical of scientific journal articles). This summary should come after your initial sentence about the scientific concept. For help with citing references, go to Citations and References in the Resources Page of the on-line version of this document.

Step 2: Revise your answers to PreLab questions 2 and 3. Write the main objectives of the lab in sentence form. Then complete the paragraph by describing how the achievement of these objectives helped you learn about the scientific concept of the lab.

More Help:

  • If your response to Question 2 was a list of objectives, revise it by summarizing the primary objectives in your own words. The point is to demonstrate your understanding of what you were supposed to do in the lab. With most labs, you should be able to do this in 1 or 2 sentences. You can begin by saying something like: "The main objectives of this lab were to…"; "In this lab we were asked to …." This will be the beginning of the paragraph.
  • Continue the paragraph by revising your answer to question 3, showing that you comprehend the purpose of the lab. Revise your answer by making it clear how accomplishing the objectives of the lab helped you to learn about the scientific concept of the lab. You can start by saying something like this: "The objectives of this lab enabled me to learn about X by…"; "Performing these objectives helped me to understand X by…."
  • This part of the Introduction is usually all in past tense.
  • If you have redefined the scientific concept of the lab since the PreLab, revise your answer to question 3 accordingly.

Step 3: Revise your answers to PreLab questions 4 and 5 in a paragraph or two. First, state your hypothesis clearly (even if it was not supported by the data). Then rewrite the explanation for your hypothesis so that your reader understands how the reasoning behind your hypothesis is based on the scientific concept of the lab.

More Help:

  • Revise your original hypothesis from PreLab question 4 so that it is clear that it is a hypothesis: "The hypothesis for this lab was…"; "My hypothesis was…"; "We predicted that…"; "I hypothesized that…."
  • Finish the paragraph by revising your response to PreLab question 5, explaining how you came to your hypothesis. As you are explaining the reasoning you used to come to your hypothesis, be sure to make a direct connection between the hypothesis and the scientific concept of the lab. Rewrite it so that your reader can clearly see how you used your understanding of the scientific concept of the lab to make a prediction about the outcome of the lab. Refer to what you said in the first paragraph of the Introduction.
  • One way to make your explanation clear is to use words that show causal links: because, since, due to the fact that, as a result, therefore, consequently, etc. For example, Since X happens in order to maximize energy, we hypothesized that . . .
  • If your explanation is relatively long, use more than one paragraph.

 

 

 

 
 
 

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