Lab Report Format

1. General instructions
a. Always write in passive voice.
b. Avoid writing I, we, etc.
c. Margins: 1 in all sides
d. Start the each page from the top, do not leave blank spaces
e. Run spelling check
f. If its a group effort, it would be advantageous if each member of the
group reviews the report before turning in
g. Write concise and to-the-point
h. Avoid superlatives (good or excellent instead of fantastic)
i. Use fairly rigid language (e.g. obtain for get, determine for find
out)
j. Use Times, Arial, or Helvetica
k. Use Section Break and Tab formatting as required
l. Write the report in past tense

2. Cover Page
a. Class number and title
b. Experiment number and name
c. Submitted by
d. Date submitted
e. Department and university
f. Use 12 font size with class number and experiment number in bold
g. Do not use page numbering
h. Do not write in all caps, use title case
i. All centered

3. Executive summary
a. What was done
b. How it was done
c. What was found
d. How good were the results
e. Generally one paragraph
f. Page number in Roman numeral (i)

4. Table of Contents
a. Executive Summary
b. List of Symbols
c. List of Figures
d. List of Tables
e. 1. Objectives
f. 2. Procedure
g. 3. Results and Discussion
h. 4. Summary
i. 5. References (if any)
j. 6. Bibliography (if any)
k. Appendices
l. Write corresponding page numbers on the right
m. Include the initials of each member of the group that contributed to the
section to the right of the page numbers.

5. List of Symbols
a. List alphabetically
b. Include description and unit

6. List of Figures (optional)

7. List of Tables (optional)

8. Objectives and Theory
a. Write overall objective of the experiment
b. Describe the theory you used for the experiment
c. Write all the equations that will be needed and number each equations.
Use Microsoft Equation Editor or equivalent to write equations. Indent
equations by at least one tab

9. Experimental Equipment and Procedures
a. Start the section with one or two introductory sentences
b. Write in steps or bulletized lists
c. Write a sentence or two before starting the bullets or steps
d. In each step, write what you are going to accomplish in that step. Do not
include figure or results in the procedure
e. Do not leave many blank spaces
f. Define the symbols used

10. Discussion of Results
a. Start the section with one or two introductory sentences
b. Do not write equations
c. Show the results in the order in which procedure is written
d. Include tables as needed in this section. Tables will be useful if you have
number of measured data. Also, show the important data in a table before
showing plots.
e. Show important plots and tables. Label the plots and tables. Example
label: Figure 1: Viscometer (centered)
f. Place the table caption above the table
g. Discuss all the results
h. Do not leave many blank spaces




11. Answers to Questions

12. Summary and Recommendations
a. Summarize work
b. Include the main results
c. Recommendations (if any)

13. References (Literatures/websites listed as a reference must be cited in the
discussion. Otherwise you should list the literature under Bibliography.)
a. Example: Brown, E. G., Theoretical Fluid Mechanics, McGraw-Hill, New
York, 1993.

14. Appendices. Include a page for the appendices and list all the items in the
appendices as shown below.

a. Appendix A
i. Lab Plots
b. Appendix B
i. Sample Data
c. Appendix C
i. Sample Calculation
All the pages in the appendices must be written as A-1, A-2, B-1, etc.

15. Start each heading from separate page