CEE/CNE 351 Laboratory Report Preparation Guidelines

Each group will submit a report for each laboratory testing exercise (except Lab 1). Reports will
be graded on professionalism (e.g. organization, neatness, general appearance) and clarity as well as on
technical content. All pages (except the cover page) should have a header or footer on them with a
unique identifier on it that would enable the report to be reassembled properly if the pages were
separated, thrown into a bin with pages from another report, and scrambled. Use the provided CEE351
Example Lab Report.docx as a template.
Each report should include the following material:
Cover Page: Use the appropriate cover page from the PowerPoint file loaded to the Blackboard. Insert
you group number and the names of your group members in the space provided and the date of the
report (put the date under the space provided for the group member names).
Table of Contents: The table of contents should include page numbers for each section of the body of
the report and lists of tables, figures, and appendices. The report name, lab group number, and date
should also be somewhere on this page.
Body of the Report: The body of the report should contain the following sections:
1.0 Introduction: Who prepared the report (e.g. Group 3 of the Fall 2012 CEE 351 Monday lab
section); what the objective is (e.g. “to classify the three soils provided by the TA in accordance with the
Unified Soil Classification System”); what soil was used in the testing (i.e. a visual description of the test
soil that is as detailed as possible) and where did it come from (e.g. it was provided by the TA).
2.0 Reference Standards/Procedures: Please cite the standards or procedures employed in the
exercise. If it is an ASTM standard, give the name and full designation. If it is a non-ASTM standard or
test procedure, give the title and cite the source. If the standard has more than one way of conducting
the test (as many ASTM standards do), cite the alternative you used (e.g. “Method A of ASTM D1557
was employed in the testing program.”).
3.0 Exceptions to the Standards: If you follow precisely the procedure as described in the
standard(s) cited above, this can be just one sentence (i.e. the tests were performed in accordance with
the cited standards.). However, most of the time we will have to deviate from the ASTM procedure. For
instance, we do not have time to mix the soil with water to the appropriate moisture content and then
let it sit for 24 hours to equilibrate. Or, instead of following the ASTM procedure for determining the
volume of a mold by filling it with water and weighing the water before and after filling, the mold
volume may be determined based upon a measured height and nominal diameter. In these cases, you
should say that the test was conducted in general accordance with ASTM D#&?$-07 and then describe
the deviations from the standard procedure. Also, sometimes the ASTM procedure has options in it. In
this case, you must cite which option you used. You should also describe any problems encountered
during the conduct of the test in this section. For instance, “During initial loading of the test specimen,
the dial gauge used to monitor sample deformation reached the end of its travel range. Therefore,
CEE/CNE 351 Laboratory Report Preparation Guidelines Page 2 of 4

loading was halted while the dial gauge was re-set on the ring stand. A measuring block of known height
was used to correlate the dial gauge reading before and after re-setting to establish the appropriate
offset to use in determining the total specimen deformation after re-setting the dial gauge.”.
Discretionary factors such as the normal stresses at which a particular series of tests were conducted
should also be cited here.
4.0 Test Results: Cite the results of your tests here. If you are reporting data, just cite the
results of your calculations (e.g. “The natural water content of the soil, evaluated as the average of three
trials with approximately 50 g (dry weight) of soil each, was 24 %.”). If it requires interpretation, than
say so and explain how you interpreted it (e.g. EXCEL was sued to draw the best fit straight line though
the data, minimizing the error using the least squares method.”).
Some sort of “consistency” (or “sanity”) check should always be included in this section, e.g. soil
classification data should be compared your manual/visual classification, results of strength or density
tests should be compared to typical values from Coduto. If your consistency check suggests that you
values are wrong, just say so and try to explain why they are wrong in the next section.
There is no “right answer” to lab tests results, and if you get screwy results I don’t expect you to re-do
the experiment. I do, however, expect you to recognize when you have ridiculous (or physically
impossible) results, to call it to my attention, and to try to diagnose where you may have gone wrong.
As Potential Sources of Error: Please explain, in plain English, what you consider to be the most
significant sources of error in your results and estimate the effector significance of these errors.
5.0 Summary and Conclusions: Nothing new goes in this section. It merely recapitulated the
key points from previous sections, i.e. what tests were conducted, what soil was tested, what the test
results showed, and what possible sources of error are. If you results look good, just say they appear to
be within the range expected considering the precision and accuracy of the test method(s).
6.0 References: The reference section should include all bibliographically correct references for
all citations included in the report, e.g. the source of a table of typical values you sued in your
consistency check (this may often be the Coduto et al. text book). The references should be complete
and in alphabetical order
7.0 Limitations: (i.e. Disclaimer and Signatures): All geotechnical reports generally contain a
disclaimer at the end and it usually goes something like this “This report has been prepared in general
accordance with accepted standards of engineering practice. We are not responsible for the use of the
data or interpretations presented in this report for any purposes other than the purposes expressed
herein unless this use is explicitly agreed to by us in writing. We are not responsible for interpretations
of the data in this report by others.” It may also say “We are not responsible for the accuracy of data
that was generated by others that is used in this report.” The disclaimer section should be put on a
separate page and include a signature block where all members of the group who prepared the report
sign and date it (in practice, this may just be the engineer in responsible charge of the work or the
engineer in responsible charge and a principal in the firm).
CEE/CNE 351 Laboratory Report Preparation Guidelines Page 3 of 4

Following the body of the report should be sections for:

Tables and Figures: I suggest you put all tables and figures at the end of the body of the text (rather
than interspersing them throughout the text). This makes edits to the body of the text much simpler.
Tables go before figures (all tables are presented, followed by all the figures). Tables and Figures are
presented (and numbered) in the order in which they are cited in the report.
Appendix: The first page in the Appendix is a signature page. It identifies what the subject of the
appendix is, who prepared, who checked the calculations, and who reviewed it to make sure it was
complete. Each of these persons must sign off on the appendix for the report to be complete. Every
subsequent page of an appendix is initialed by at least two people: the originator and the checker. I
have provided samples of the cover sheet and a typical calculation page for the appendix (and posted
them to the Blackboard). You may put all calculations in a single appendix or you may have multiple
appendices (e.g. one for each calculation).
Computations: Detail ALL calculations performed in producing the report. Calculations should be laid
out in a logical sequence that anyone can follow.
CEE/CNE 351 Laboratory Report Preparation Guidelines Page 4 of 4

Comments on Lab Reports

1. Reports should be as brief as possible without sacrificing completeness.

2. Be sure to cite the test procedure(s) employed in your report.
3. There is no need to describe anything unambiguous in the ASTM specification, e.g. test
procedures, equipment, calculations. However, ambiguities and assumptions should be clarified
in your report.
4. State what you did with respect to any discretionary actions specified by the ASTM procedure,
e.g. “Method 1A, the dry sieving method, was used.”
5. Describe any deviations from the ASTM procedure, both in terms of what you did and what
ASTM actually called for.
6. Signatures go on the last page of the text and on every page in the appendix. Tables in the text
should either be copies of tables that are signed off on in the appendix or summary tables of
values from tables and calculations in the appendix.
7. Calculations and data sheets can be completed by hand and in pencil or word processed.
However, they must be “wet signed,” no erasures are allowed, and all strike-out must be
initialed by the person who makes the strike out and also by the person who originally made the
calculation or prepared the plot or table..
8. Signing off on a calculation as the checker means you checked it! Signing off on the report
means you reviewed it and you concur with its contents, e.g. values in the text are consistent
with values reported in the appendix.
9. Nothing should be mentioned for the first time in the Summary and Conclusions.
10. When you calculate a number, you should always look for consistency checks – ask yourself if
the number makes sense. For instance, does it make sense that the unit weight for a soil with a
relative density of 75% is less than the minimum unit weight, or more than the maximum unit
weight, or even that it is closer to the minimum unit weight than it is to the maximum unit
weight?
11. Calculations should be laid out in a logical sequence that I, or anyone else looking at them, can
follow. Just putting a table with an EXCEL spreadsheet in the appendix with a sample
calculation and a hand-check on one or two values is not acceptable.

12. Be reasonable and use good judgment with respect to significant digits. For instance, there is no
point in reporting the unit weight to 6 significant digits, e.g. 18.348562 kN/m3. However, 18
kN/m3 is probably a little too much round-off. Three or four significant digits are usually
sufficient but avoid rounding off any digit left of the decimal point.