Writing for Engineers Portfolio

Lab Analyses and Reflection Essay

Title:

Each of these sample lab reports consist of titles. All the titles are centered within the page. Further, the font of the letters is much larger than the font of the rest of the text. The reason why having bolded sub headers is helpful results in grasping is readers attention. It also gives the audience a sense of what the lab report will be about.

Abstract:

Most of the sample lab reports consist of informative abstracts. However, one of them was more detailed. The reports that contain the more informative abstracts were written for the public. People who are not in the field in which the lab is written clearly does not know much about the topic. Therefore, the abstract is written in an informative way, to inform the reader about a topic that they do not have any previous knowledge about. Additionally, for the more detailed report, its main audience would be individuals who are in the same field as you. They have the same knowledge; however, the author is writing about a specific topic in detail to show why is the subject is important and is worth going into further conversations about.

Introductions:

All sample lab reports contain the hypothesis for their study and mention the importance of the study. Along with that, the introduction includes previous studies that are related to the study within the report. But, some had questions and others did not. The questions were placed there to get the audience thinking. Usually the questions were placed in the informative labs. Since the audience has not been exposed to that field, the authors incorporate questions to get the audience thinking critically. This would help the audience understand and relate to the topic. Without the questions, the audience would only read blocks of text, resulting in disinterest and would not learn as much as they would if they would exercise their knowledge with questions. Overall, these introductions were good in terms of being informative; however, the others that took that step further to incorporate the audience by the use of questions, will have a more beneficial impact on the audience.

Methods:

The methods in all reports are well descriptive. They all mention what exactly was being conducted within the experiment, describing each step-in order in paragraph format, rather than listing them with numbers. One of the lab reports showed a table. This table helped illustrate what exactly what the experiment consisted of. Visuals are always beneficial to include because one can lose track, and with the chart it can help guide the reader to understand the experiments method. Moreover, all of these lab reports did not incorporate a section for materials. Instead they mentioned a few materials that were used during the experiment within the method section. This was a good strategy because it saves the audience some time and looks more professional. If the author placed a materials section with a list of materials listed, then the report would not look as awkward and somewhat less professional.

Results:

Some similarities between the sample lab reports were the explanations about the outcomes and why those outcomes took place. Also, whether their hypothesis were right or wrong. Depending on what the reports subject was, it used different kinds of evidence such as, diagrams or equations. This helped identify the result of the original hypothesis.

Discussion:

Each of these reports implemented their major finding that was discovered during the experiments and explained the significance of the experiment and its importance within society. Yet, for the more descriptive reports, they did not have many data to refer too. Meanwhile, for the more informative reports the discussion would state an outcome that occurred within the experiment, then would include a figure number, which showcases the specific data that proves what was just mentioned.

Conclusion:

All these labs had similar conclusions. Each state their most important or interesting findings, while doing the experiment, and then briefly discussed about what they have learned from their experiences. Also, possible future experiments were also discussed, if they come across theses subject again. Lastly, they ended their conclusions with a nice persuasive statement, to get the audience believing and knowing what the author wants them to know.

Acknowledgments:

None of these reports had an acknowledgment section, largely because these experiments were conducted by only one person (the author). They did not receive assistance from any colleagues or anything of that nature.

References:

Two of the three reports consist of a reference list. The ones with a reference list come out as reliable and honest. This is because people will know where one’s information came from and would not think that anything is made up. Moreover, there can be multiple reasons why the one lab report with no reference. One reason can be that they did not use any other references. They probably got their ideas by themselves and conducted the experiment on their own. Without any assistance from references. Another reason can be in result of their level of reliability amongst the public. Like large corporations who can write up anything and the public would believe in them without referring to any sources.

Lab Reports:

The first sample lab portrayed whether if the structure and motions of cells correlates to the size of an organism (Protist). The way this experiment was happened was by placing the different protist on a slide, where they were individually looked at through a microscope. From this observation the shape, motion and structure the cell was determined.

The second sample lab consisted of Beaver behavior. They discuss that beavers prefer to stay near trees that are near streams opposed to tree that are further away. This is associated with nutritional value, and the conservation of energy. The experimenters went into the wild and choose a specific location containing trees and a stream. Then they observed the amount of bite mark on the trees related to their distance from the water.

The last sample experimented the nutritional value of different foods, to conclude that one needs to eat a variety of foods to get the overall balance of nutrition such as, proteins, carbohydrates and plenty other nutriments. In addition, the lab showcases how some foods results in a decline in having good health. Overall, their main findings indicated that there is not one food that can meet all daily requirements and how concentration of nutrition ranges from one food to another. Some consist more of proteins and others may consist more of carbohydrate, which have different functions.

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The lab report analysis was really interesting. I believe it was beneficial because this assignment has us look at different lab reports. What this does is that I give us a sense of how these lab reports are written in the professional point of view. Also, all of these reports are written differently giving us different options on how one would like to approach writing their lab report. Further, while writing the analysis I was required to look at all aspects of each of there lab reports. I had to go through every single section and compare those sections to the sections within the other lab reports. This part of the assignment was somewhat annoying however, it does help one get a full understanding and is great practice. Overall, this assignment helped me understand what a lab report should look like and what kind of content is written. In result of, all the similarities and differences that we had to mention within the analysis.