How to Write a Formal Lab Report

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Writing good formal lab reports is an excellent way to raise your grade in chemistry and will help prepare you for writing lab reports in college. A formal lab report should be typed or written neatly in pen. The pages should be stapled together (or otherwise attached). Below is a list of the basic components of a formal lab report (these are the things that I will be looking for). Your pre-lab will normally be assigned the day before the actual experiment takes place. In a pre-lab, items 2-3 must be completed and any charts and/or data tables must be drawn for the Data and Observations section. Your pre-lab is designed so that you will know what is to be done during the lab and must be completed before you may participate in the lab. Your formal lab report should include: 1. Title Page: Name of Lab Date Class Name and Period Number Your Name & Number Lab Partner: Your lab partner's name Example: Calorimetry and Hess's Law 11/27/01 Chemistry - 2 nd period Amy Zalevskiy #1 Lab Partner: Jane Doe 2. Objective(s): Why are you doing the experiment? 3. Procedure: How do you do the experiment? Summarize the lab procedure 4. Data and Observations: What happened during the experiment? Data tables Notes of observations during experiment 5. Analysis: What do your data & observations mean? Answer any and all analysis questions in lab Show all work for any calculations done 6. Conclusion: What did you learn from the experiment? Short paragraph summarizing the experiment Answer any and all conclusion questions in lab Pre-lab Your pre-lab will normally be assigned the day before the actual experiment takes place. In a pre-lab, items 2-3 must be completed and any charts and/or data tables must be drawn for the Data and Observations section. Your pre-lab is designed so that you will know what is to be done during the lab and must be completed before you may participate in the lab. A pre-lab includes: objectives summary of procedure Any charts and/or data tables                       Formal Lab Report Checklist Report typed or neatly written in pen Title page on separate piece of paper with required info Objectives Summary of procedure Complete data table with units on measurements Observations All analysis questions answered All work shown Summary paragraph of experiment All conclusion questions answered