E12 Physical Systems Analysis: Formal Report Format

The format described below has proven to be an effective way to present experimental results, and is uniformly used in scientific journals. Using it will help ensure that the information you are trying to present comes across clearly; it will also help you to organize your thoughts. If you choose not to use this format, you should have a good reason.

The format consists of 9 sections. Some of these sections may be short, or even non-existent, at times. Try to keep your reports as concise as possible, while still making sure they are complete. Excessive prose, unsupported conclusions, or tangential comments should not be part of your report. Each group will submit a single formal report for each lab, when a formal report is required.

1. Title Page

This should include the class, the date and the name of the students who performed the lab and wrote the report. Each group should prepare one report.

2. Abstract

A summary of the experiment. One paragraph describing what you did; this section is usually only 3 or 4 sentences (less than 200 words).

3. Introduction

• What principles were demonstrated?
• How?
• Think hard before writing this section and be as clear as possible in your writing.

4. Procedure

This section details the experiment. What did you do? You may refer to the lab handout if you include a reference to the web page in your report. There is no need to simply restate what is already written in the handout. If you followed the procedure without any substantial variation, your procedure section can be a single sentence. Please remember to use the appropriate citation(s) if you do refer to handouts or other materials.

5. Theory and Calculations

Use this section to present and/or derive any equations, if necessary.

6. Results

This section is often handled poorly, so try to be careful and think about how to best present your results.

• Present both theoretical and experimental results.
• Make sure results are clearly labeled and set off from the text somehow (eg, in a table or graph), and not simply embedded in the text.
• Try to use just a few concise table and graphs to present your results.
• Show experimental and theoretical results side by side for easy comparison, e.g. in the same table or graph. This is important!
• All axes of all graphs must be labeled with an appropriate title, scale, and units.

7. Discussion

This section is used to demonstrate that you understand what you did and the significance of your results.

• Discuss the significance, or meaning, of your results.
• Discuss discrepancies between theoretical and experimental results, and their likely causes.
• Discuss any difficulties you encountered.
• Discuss changes you would make to improve the lab. These may be included in the labs for future generations.

8. Conclusions and Future Work

The purpose of this section is to wrap up the lab and summarize what was reported. You can also make suggestions for future improvements, though this is not necessary.

9. Acknowledgments

Use this section to acknowledge any collaboration or help that you received during the experiments or writing of the report.