Appendix - Guide to Writing a Lab Report Writing lab reports is @ key skill, within chemistry and other related disciplines. Scientific reports have a particular structure and writing style which you must develop. Like any skil, this takes time and practice to develop. This report is designed to help you do that. We do not expect your first report to be perfect, this is but one of many steps to develop your scientific writing capabilities. Quick Guidelines 1, Use the past tense and formal language. Report exactly what you did, not ‘what you wanted to happen or what the script said should happen. Do not use Contractions or colloquialisms. fit is dull to read, you are probably doing it right. 2. Never use “I” or “my”. You should never refer to yourself or other individuals, refer using the passive voice. Also avoid “the student’, “the experimenter”, or ‘one”, 3. Be clear and concise. Try to state what you need to as understandable as Possible and in as few words as possible. 4. Do not use quotes. If you are explaining information from a reference, restate itin your own words, and then use an in-text citation in an Oxford style." 5. Justify your text. This aligns the end of all the lines and makes reading the text easier. Select all your text and use the shorteut ‘Ctrl’ + ‘J’ (or ‘Ctrl’ + ‘Shift +'J' for google docs). 6. Proofread your work. Simple to do and extremely beneficial but easy to forget. It is recommended that you add chemistry words to your word processor's dictionary so that they can easily be detected. 7. Assume the reader is a chemist, but knows nothing about your experiment. Write your report as if you are explaining your results to a chemistry student at a diferent university. For example, you need to state the techniques, chemicals and quantities used but you can assume they will select appropriate glassware of the correct size from this information. 42 eee eoIntroduction An introduction provides background information and context to the experiment. This 's s0 the reader understands why your work is important andlor where your hypothesis Comes from. A good introduction prepares the reader for what they are about to read by telling them why you are doing what you are doing Present information that suggests why your work is interesting, why the method you have chosen may prove successful, and what conclusions might be drawn from the experiment (save the actual resuits forthe discussion and conclusion, but suggest the general direction ofthe results). Below is a generic structure to tty and follow when writ introduction. Like any eutien low when writing your raw the reader in with easy to understand, broad ideas then gradually ‘add detail and complexity until you end on the main point of your work. with background information, maybe| include "important history facts or figures now narow the focus with information more specific to your report =» with context established, outline the: Purpose and objectives of your work ( what is the scientific problem that you are addressing?) Method This is a factual account of exactly what you did, what you used and what you observed. Itis often helpful to base this on the listed instructions you were given in the lab. Do not write your method as a list but do write what you did. The style for writing your method is formal, past tense and 3" person. You should include the amount of any chemical you used in brackets after the name or formula of the compound. Additionally, you don't need to state what glassware you used; we assume the reader can figure that out. Try to style your method around the example given below. Some parts of the method have been removed. 4-aminophenol (5.448 g) was added to acetic anhydride (6.00 cm’) before being heated fo 150 °C. The reaction mixture was allowed to str for 30 min before The resulting crude crystals were isolated under vacuum filtration (7.951 g). The 43crude crystals were purified by... . The final product was isolated as white crystals (6.943 9, 92% yield). {you would like more complete examples, look at the methodology of any chemistry Paper published within the field you are writing a report for (e.g. ry googling “Journal ‘of Organic / Inorganic / Physical / Analytical Chemistry’). Results and Discussion This is the main body of your report where you need to state your findings and then tse those results to discuss if the experiment was successful or not. Where possible,

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