Human Physiology Laboratory
Directions for writing lab reports
Instructor: Spurrier, Caviness, Marshall, deFauw, Loncarich
To the students:
The lab reports in this course are assigned with the intent of
exposing each of you to a scientific style of writing. The format we ask
you to use is very similar to the format used by scientists when
submitting their research for publication. The key to doing well on these
assignments is simple. Follow the instructions below very carefully (as
well as the instructions given in class) and put effort into your work.
Remember, if you run into problems or have formatting questions, please
see me for help. I encourage each of you to seek assistance from me if
you feel stuck or unsure about your progress on these assignments. After
all, 40% of your lab grade depends on your performance with these reports.
Good Luck!
Overall requirements for your lab reports:
There are four possible ways you may earn zeros on your lab reports
(please don't try me to find more ways). First, lab reports must be typed
or computer generated. I will not accept them if this requirement is not
fulfilled. Second, I will not accept late lab reports. Third, lab
reports are individual assignments. Each student needs to complete these
assignments individually. If I find that any section of a lab report(s)
has been copied from another lab report(s), I will assign all lab reports
involved zeros. Finally, plagiarism from primary literature or web sites
will result in a zero.
Lab reports must have a title page that includes the following
information: an appropriate title, your name, and your lab section. Lab
reports must have five labeled sections in the following order:
introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and literature
cited. Overall, the lab report is worth 100 points. These points are
divided up as follows: title page=2points, introduction=20points,
materials and methods=15points, results=18points, discussion=20points, and
literature cited=25points. The remainder of this handout provides you
with instructions for each section and how points are partitioned within
each section.
Introduction:
The introduction should start very broad. In this section you
should provide background information to the reader. Provide information
necessary for the reader to understand the context and significance of
your work. What is already known about your subject matter? Why is what
you have done important to the scientific community? For example, for
the subject matter of the first lab report, you would want to address:
· What are homeostatic control systems and why are they necessary?
· What are the parts of your nervous system?
· How does your nervous system work?
· Specifically, what role does the Central Nervous System play?
After you have provided background information on the subject matter, you
need to narrow
your focus down and address the specific hypotheses you have tested. In
fact this, section should end with the hypotheses you are going to test
(make sure you state these hypotheses in the active voice). For the first
lab report you will deal with a couple issues. You need to make a formal
hypothesis about each one. For example, you will demonstrate that a
complete (brain and spinal cord intact) CNS is not necessary for all
reflex actions involving the CNS. Sometimes the spinal cord alone serves
as the integrating center. You will need to make a formal hypothesis
about this portion of your lab exercise. In addition, in the neural
function lab you will demonstrate that the strength of a stimulus can
affect how fast a reflex occurs. You will need to make a second
hypothesis about this portion of your lab exercise.
The 20 points from this section will be divided up as follows:
· 10 points for content: was all of the necessary information
provided
· 5 points for organization: did I have to hunt all over for the
necessary information or was material that belonged in this section indeed
in this section, was there adequate flow to your writing (did it proceed
in an organized/logical fashion); in the case of the introduction, did you
start of broad and then narrow down to your hypotheses.
· 5 points for writing quality: grammar, spelling, writing style,
active/passive voice
Materials and Methods:
Writing the materials and methods section is very straightforward.
This is where you inform the reader about how you tested your hypotheses.
You should write this section in the active voice (in other words, using I
or we is acceptable!). Make sure you provide the following information:
· What was your experimental design?
· How were your data collected? (for example, what measurement tools
were used, what were your measurement units)
· How were your data analyzed? (for example, what statistical tests
did you use and what computer program did you use to run these statistical
tests)
Make sure you DO NOT do the following:
· Write in passive voice.
· List the materials you used in a cookbook fashion. You should
write this section in paragraph form.
The 15 points from this section will be divided up as follows:
· 7 points for content: was all of the necessary information
provided
· 4 points for organization: did I have to hunt all over for the
necessary information or was material that belonged in this section indeed
in this section, was there adequate flow to your writing (did it proceed
in an organized/logical fashion)
· 4 points for writing quality: grammar, spelling, writing style,
active/passive voice
Results:
Present the results of your experiment and data analyses in this
section. Write this section in the active voice and in paragraph form.
You must have a minimum of one table and one graph in this section.
Format this section as follows:
· Put graphs and tables at the end of this section.
· Graphs and tables must be computer generated!
· Put each table and graph on a separate sheet of paper.
· Make sure to label each graph and table with a number and a
descriptive title. For example, if you have four tables and three graphs,
they would be Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Graph 1, Graph 2, and
Graph 3, respectively. Make the title of each graph and table
informative.
· If you have abbreviated any terms or if you have used symbols to
represent any terms, define them after you state the title. For an
example, see Table 3 in the turtle publication.
· Whenever you place a graph or table in this section, refer me to
it in your text. Never just stick a table or graph in this section
without proper reference to it. For example, if you generated a graph
depicting the relationship between temperature and goldfish breathing
rate, you could say:
In this experiment, we found that goldfish breathing rate increased as
temperature increased (Graph 1).
The 18 points from this section will be divided up as follows:
· 10 points for content: was all of the necessary information
provided.
· 4 points for organization: did I have to hunt all over for the
necessary information or was material that belonged in this section indeed
in this section, was there adequate flow to your writing (did it proceed
in an organized/logical fashion), did you follow the instructions for
presenting graphs and tables
· 4 points for writing quality: grammar, spelling, writing style,
active/passive voice
Discussion:
You interpret your results in this section. In other words, you
put your findings into a meaningful context. Make sure you do the
following things in this section:
· State whether or not your hypotheses were supported.
· State whether or not your findings were what you expected based on
what information is available in the scientific literature (for example,
were you able to find studies that had similar results to those in your
work or did you find studies with results different from yours).
· What was the significance of your findings to the scientific
community?
· How would you take the work you have done one step further?
· Discuss any flaws in your experiment that you believe may have
influenced your results; suggest how to correct them.
The 20 points from this section will be divided up as follows:
· 10 points for content: was all of the necessary information
provided
· 5 points for organization: did I have to hunt all over for the
necessary information or was material that belonged in this section
actually in this section, was there adequate flow to your writing (did it
proceed in an organized/logical fashion); in the case of the discussion,
did you start of narrow (stating whether or not your data supported your
hypotheses) and then end broad (stating whether other investigators found
the same or different results, stating what future directions could be to
your research, what was the significance of your findings to the
scientific community).
· 5 points for writing quality: grammar, spelling, writing style,
active/passive voice
Literature Cited:
You already have one source for this section of the lab report: your lab
manual. You must find at least five more sources for your lab report. So
at minimum, you will have six sources listed in this section. All sources
must each be cited at least once in your lab report. We will discuss in
lab how to make citations in your report. In addition, you can use the
reprints of the publications on display in the lab as a reference for how
to make citations in the text of your report. Acceptable sources include:
your textbook, other text books, scientific (peer-reviewed) journal
articles, books specific to the topic. Websites, magazine articles,
lecture notes, and personal conversations/interviews are not acceptable
sources. At least three of your sources must be from scientific
(peer-reviewed) journal articles. List your sources alphabetically (by
author) in the literature cited portion of the lab report. The
information you should provide for each source and how this information
should be arranged is as follows:
For Books and Lab Manuals:
Author(s). Year. Title. Publisher. Place.
For Journal Articles:
Author(s). Year. Article Title. Journal Name followed by Volume
Number:article page numbers.
Example:
The journal article I published on turtles would be listed in your
literature cited section as:
Pilgrim, M. A., T. M. Farrell and P. G. May. 1997. Population structure,
activity, and
sexual dimorphism in a Central Florida population of box turtles,
Terrepene carolina bauri. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 2:483-488.
The twenty-five points for this section will be divided up as follows:
· Did you have five acceptable sources in this section and was each
source cited at least once in the text of your lab report? Note: Any
sources listed in the literature cited section, but not cited in the text
of your lab report DO NOT count as a source at all!
20 points
· Was the correct format used for making citations in the text and
for listing the sources in the literature cited section?
5 points