CVEN 3454/5404 Water Chemistry
Laboratory Report Guidelines
These guidelines pertain mainly to the reports for
the assigned laboratories.
General
Guidelines
- Lab reports must be submitted to
me by email as a Word document. Files sent with viruses will be returned
without a grade.
- I will read the first
submission of the lab report, add comments and critiques to the Word document, and return it to
you with a grade, usually in one week. If the first submission
does not meet all of the basic formatting and length requirements described
below, I will return the first submission without comments and a zero
grade for the first submission.
- You may accept the grade of the first
submission as the final grade for your lab report, and the grade will count
for 100% of your lab report grade.
- If you do not like the grade for the first
submission, you may revise and
resubmit the lab report. If you revise and resubmit, I will grade the revised lab report for
improvement over the first submission and care in heeding the comments and
critiques. If a
revision is submitted, then the grade received for the first submission counts
for 25% of the lab grade and the grade received for the revision counts for
75% of the lab grade. If the first submission was returned with a zero
grade, the grade received for the revision counts for 100% of the lab grade.
- The following file naming format must be
used for submitting the lab report files:
first submission: Lab X Lastname1 Lastname2 Lastname3.doc
second submission:
Lab X Lastname1 Lastname2 Lastname3 Revision.doc
where X is the number of the assigned laboratory and
Lastname1, ... are
the last names of the students on the lab team in alphabetical order.
- If lab reports are submitted with
incorrect file name format, they will be returned without a grade. If
they are submitted a second time with the incorrect file name format, they
will not be accepted. You will be allowed three days to re-submit the
lab report with the correct file name format.
- Each lab report must have a single author, with
other teammates serving as editors. The author must be identified on the
title page.
- Lab reports must be submitted with the
University of Colorado Honor Code
written out and the lab report signed (electronically -- typing your name
below the Honor Code will suffice) by all students on
the lab team on the final page of the lab report.
Formatting
- Type your lab reports. Handwritten lab reports will not be accepted. Use a good word processor and learn its
features (formatting, tables, equation editor, references, etc.).
- The reports must be formatted as double-spaced,
12-point
font, 1-inch margins, and numbered pages or they will be returned for
editing without the benefit of any editorial comments on your first
submission.
- Tables should be presented clearly and in a professional
manner. They should be numbered (Arabic numbers) and located after their
citation in the text. They should only be
as large as necessary for legibility. They should be titled with a caption that describes
their content. The caption should be located above the table.
The caption should be single-spaced, and a single line space should be
included between the caption and the table. Title and data entries in
the tables should be centered in the columns usually. Only as many grid lines as
necessary to separate the column titles from the table entries should be
used. Table and caption text should be in the same font and size, or a
smaller font size if necessary to fit the table on one page, as the main text
font.
- Figures (graphs and
photographs) should be presented clearly and in a professional
manner. They should be numbered (Arabic numbers) and after their citation in
the text.
They should only be
as large as necessary for legibility. They should be titled with a caption that describes
their content completely. The caption should be located below the figure.
Graphs should use "as little ink" as possible -- no extra titles,
no borders, no unnecessary legends, no backgrounds, no grid lines (the
Microsoft Excel® default is not a good format).
Axis labels (numerical and text) should be legible. Axis labels should
include units in parentheses.
- The text length limit is 5 pages of
text, tables, and figures
formatted as described above. This does not include the title page and the
lab evaluation notes (see organization guidelines below). Text over 5 pages
will not be read.
Organization
- The lab report should be organized following this format:
Title Page (does not count toward page
limit). The title page should contain the lab number,
the lab title, your names, your section, the date, and the names of your lab
partners.
Introduction (about one-half page). The introduction
should contain a brief statement of (1) the purpose of the lab, (2) the
environmental importance of the parameters being measured, and (3) if applicable, a
hypothesis about the outcome of the lab.
Materials and Methods (about one-half to one page).
The Materials and Methods section should provide a description of key steps taken
in the lab. The steps should be described in past tense (not as
instructions in present tense). Avoid narration, which is often marked
by words like "first," "next," "after," and "then." A sketch of the experimental apparatus
should be included as a figure. A description and map (figure) of the
site from which the samples were obtained should be included.
Results (about one-two pages). This section should include the
results presented primarily in tables and graphs. If you said you did something in the
Materials and Methods, show the results. Also, show the results of any calculations (including
equations if necessary) and statistical analyses you performed. For
equations, show the general equation with variables, but do not show any
step-by-step insertion of values or rearrangements to find the solution.
List the equation variables in the text and values used for the variables in
the text or a table.
Discussion (about one-two pages). What do the results mean? Have
your experiments tested your hypotheses (if you had any)? What problems were encountered?
This is the section where you can show that you understood not only how to follow a
recipe, but that you understood why you were doing the lab. Each lab will have a short set
of questions that will give you a good idea of the material that should be covered in the
Discussion. You should answer these questions by integrating the answers into your written
discussion, not by simply answering the questions with numbered responses.
Lab Evaluation (optional; just some
feedback; does not count toward page limit). Was the lab well set up? Did you learn something about the techniques? Did
you learn something about the chemistry? Was this too much work? I will try to
use these comments
to improve labs later this semester and in following years.
- Your lab report grade will emphasize the
reasoning used to address the lab issues and on writing quality.
You will not be graded directly on getting "the right answer" in the lab. You
will be graded on following the proper format, writing clearly, reporting the results and
discussing them clearly.
Some Advice on Writing Lab Reports
At the University of Colorado:
On the Web:
Last updated on
August 22, 2007 at
01:58 PM by Joe Ryan