How to Write a Lab Report Talk[1]

8/2/2019 How to Write a Lab Report Talk[1]

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School of Physics and Astronomy

Writing a report

Niels Walet and Marion Birch

[email protected]

[email protected]

(Using material by TSU/Susan Gregory & Sue King)
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Before we start

Discuss with your neighbour(s) what you find most difficult inwriting a report


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Summary and introduction of todays lecture

Introduction

Audience

Elements of report style

Assessment

Plagiarism and other cheats Paraphrasing: how to use sourced material

Writing a report is a skill, that cant be summarized in a set ofrules, but like any craft can be learnt mainly through lots of

practice and feedback.

Todays lecture gives some guidelines and ideas for you to thinkabout; but there is no one size fits all.


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Assessing the Audience

Any piece of written material is aimed at a specific audience:

Who are your readers? Professors, managers, engineers,scientists, or technicians? What terms will you have to define?What background information will you have to include?

Why is audience reading the document? Is the document

supposed to inform or to convince?

How will they read your document? Will they read it straightthrough like a story or will they turn to specific sections?

Based on http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/workbooks/intro.html#audience
http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/workbooks/intro.htmlhttp://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/workbooks/intro.htmlhttp://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/workbooks/intro.html


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Elements of style: Report Structure

There are no set in stone rules for the structure of your report butmost reports will include some or all of the following***

Title Page

Abstract

Introduction Experimental Method

Theory

Experimental Results

Discussion and Conclusion

References

Appendices of raw data and calculations where appropriate.

***some sections have to be in a report


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Elements of style: some key DOs and DONTs

DO:

include an abstract that conciselysummarises the outcome of theexperiment-including numbers!

use the appropriate tense-you arereporting on an experiment thathas been carried out in the past

ensure all figures haveappropriate numbered captions

ensure you reference all sourcematerial appropriately (see later)

consider when words shouldbegin with a capital letter

re-read and review your reportcritically before handing in formarking

DONT:

just list instructions on how toperform the experiment

give detailed arithmetic oralgebraic calculations

use jargon or undefinedabbreviations

make excessive use of personalstyle of I or we(but we often use impersonalwe!)

give long lists of experimentalresults in the main text of thereport-use appendices if reallynecessary


7/29School of Physics and Astronomy

Elements of style: use our template for report writing

Title first word starts with a capital

Jack A Surname1 and (if joint) Jill Surname2


The University of Manchester

First Year Laboratory Report

Nov 2003

This experiment was performed in collaboration with T Partnername.

Abstract

https://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.doc
https://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.doc



Assessment of reports: criteria

All 1st Year Lab reports are assessed according to standardcriteria relating to:

Presentation and Organisation

Use of English (spelling, grammar etc.)

Use of Figures, Tables and References

Clarity and Conciseness

Physics Content

Each of these five areas is scored out of a maximum mark of10, with a resulting total mark out of 50.

Feedback should be provided from marker. Feedback is crucialin learning the art of writing reports.

If you are unsure about something, ASK!!
https://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.doc



Assessment of reports: criteria
https://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.doc



Assessment: examples of real reports

Activity:

You have been provided with two anonymous (but real!) reports,

and are requested to grade each of them using the criteria in theprevious slide.

NO CONFERRING!!!

You will then submit your total mark using the clickers.

We will look at the distribution of marks.

https://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/reports
https://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/1stYearReportTemplate.dochttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/reportshttps://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/lab/info/year1/reports



Report A: Thermal Radiation

Please enter your mark out of 50.



Report B: Gas Flow through narrow tubes

Please enter your mark out of 50.



Report marking exercise: conclusions

Two general points emerge from this exercise:

1. Even with rather detailed mark schemes, there will always besome variation between assessors!

In practice, this variation is hopefully not too large: marks are

monitored in 1st

year lab for big variations and, if necessary,reports are re-marked by the lab tutor.

2. Appreciating the perspective of your audience (i.e. the personmarking your report) is essential.

Hopefully you now appreciate that a poorly written/presentedreport can be quite irritating and difficult to read: dont put theperson marking your report in a bad mood!

Marks can be gained/lost easily: pay attention to the basics ofreport writingdont make silly mistakes: always re-read andrevise your completed report.



Using external sources

For many documents we write, we use externalsources.

How do you use sources?

Go straight to wikipedia and copy?

Use a single authorative source?

Use multiple sources without telling?

Use an old report as template? All of these have elements of academic cheating

(plagiarism). So is there a correct way to use external material?



George Harrison Martin Luther King Ibrahim Al-Marashi Madonna

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) US (German-born) physicist

Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research.

Wilson Mizner (1876 - 1933) US screenwriter

Famous examples



ACADEMIC FRAUD? ACADEMIC CHEATING? PLAGIARISM?

Here is a set of terms that cover the many different types ofacademic dishonesty. Look at them and then match them tothe descriptions you have on your sheet.

Plagiarism

Collusion Falsification

Impersonation

Copying

An exercise for students adapted from Franklyn-Stokes, A and Newstead, SE (1995),

Undergraduate Cheating: who does what and why, Studies in Higher Education, 20:2


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ACADEMIC FRAUD? ACADEMIC CHEATING? PLAGIARISM?

1. Allowing work to be copied by another studentCollusion

2. Fabricating references or a bibliographyFalsification

3. Copying another students work with their knowledgeCollusion

4. Submitting work from an outside source

Plagiarism/Impersonation5. Copying another students work without their knowledgeCopying

6. Inventing/Altering dataFalsification

7. Not contributing a fair share to group workCheating

8. Paraphrasing material from a source without acknowledging the original authorPlagiarism9. Copying material for a report without acknowledging the source

Plagiarism

10. Doing another students work for themCollusion

11. Lifting information form the Internet without sourcing itPlagiarism


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WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE?

Number 1 is plagiarism. Number 6 is not. Where do you draw the line? A bibliography is defined as a list of books relevant to the piece of writing but not

necessarily cited in the text; a reference list contains all the sources cited in the text.

1. Copying a paragraph verbatim from a source without any acknowledgement.

2. Copying a paragraph and making small changes eg replacing a few verbs,replacing an adjective with a synonym; source in the list of references.

3. Cutting and pasting a paragraph by using sentences of the original but omittingone or two and putting one or two in a different order, no quotation marks; in-text acknowledgement eg (Jones, 1999) plus inclusion in the reference list.

4. Composing a paragraph by taking short phrases of 10 to 15 words from anumber of sources and putting them together, adding words of your own tomake a coherent whole; all sources included in reference list.

5. Paraphrasing a paragraph with substantial changes in language and

organisation; the new version will also have changes in the amount of detailused and the examples cited; in text acknowledgement eg (Jones 1999) andinclusion in reference list.

6. Quoting a paragraph by placing it in block format with the source cited in textand list of references.

Based on an exercise inAcademic Writing for Graduate Students by Swales and Feak, University of Michigan, 1993.


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COMMON TYPES OF PLAGIARISM

Cut & Paste Plagiarism Whenever you take an entire sentence or significant phrase from a source, you must

use quotation marks and reference the source.

Word Switch Plagiarism

If you take a sentence from a source and simply change around a few words, it is stillplagiarism.

Style Plagiarism If you follow a Source Article sentence-by-sentence or paragraph-by-paragraph, it is

plagiarism, even though none of your sentences is exactly like those in the Sourcearticle or even in the same order. You are copying is the author's reasoning style.

Metaphor Plagiarism

Metaphors are used to make an idea clearer than by giving a plain description of theobject or process. Metaphors, are an important part of an author's creative style andif you use the metaphor in the Source Article, give the author credit for it.

Idea Plagiarism

If the author of the source article expresses a creative idea or suggests a solution toa problem, these must be clearly attributed to the author. This is different frompublicdomain information, which is any idea or solution accepted as general knowledge. Forexample, what a black hole is and how it is defined is general knowledge. You do notneed to reference a general description of a black hole.

Based on PLAGIARISM A Student's Guide to Recognizing It and Avoiding It, Dr. C. Barnbaum,Department of Physics and Astronomy, Valdosta State University


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PARAPHRASING: SAY IT YOUR OWN WAY

Structure: the grammatical structure should be changed if this canbe done without changing meaning. Often this can be done by joiningup sentences or by dividing up long sentences.

Meaning: your paraphrase must have the same meaning as thesource; it should also have the same relationship between main ideas

and supporting details. Words: use different vocabulary when possible, usually more

common synonyms/expressions and simpler phrases. Keepspecialised vocabulary which has no synonyms (e.g., calcium; plastic;theory; neutron), proper names (e.g., Europe; World HealthOrganisation), numbers and formulae (e.g. 50%; 2000KW/m; 1984).

Length: the length should not vary very much from the length of theoriginal.

Style: should be your own and not an imitation of the source, even ifyour own style seems less perfect to you.


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STEPS IN PARAPHRASING

The following list contains steps which will help you write a good paraphrase.

Read the source.

Understand the source.

Put away the source.

Make a simple list of the main points you remember from the source.

Reread the source quicklyto make sure you have included all the important points. Put away the source again.

Join together the points from your list into proper sentence structure, using suitablegrammar to make a continuous piece of writing.

Reread your paraphrase, correcting the grammar and organisation if necessary.

Check your paraphrase against the source. Is it a good paraphrase?

A GOOD PARAPHRASE IS.

Accurate (the ideas in the paraphrase are the same as in the source)

Original (the language use is different from the source)

Grammatical


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EXERCISE (1)

Based on PLAGIARISM A Student's Guide to Recognizing It and Avoiding It, Dr. C. Barnbaum,

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Valdosta State University

http://www.valdosta.edu/~cbarnbau/personal/teaching_MISC/plagiarism.htm

Source Article

Especially since the launch of HST and theunprecedented clarity of the imagessatellites have given us, you've all seen onthe news or in books, beautiful colorpictures of various sights in the cosmos. But

is this the way youwould see these objectsif you went there? Well, to tackle thatquestion, first we have to consider thenature of light and color. Light is made ofwaves of electromagnetic radiation. Weperceive different wavelengths of visiblelight as different colors.

An Example of Copy & Paste Plagiarism

Everyone is interested in astronomicalimages, especially since the launch of HSTand the unprecedented clarity of the imagessatellites have given us. But is this the wayyou would see these objects if you went

there?
http://www.valdosta.edu/~cbarnbau/personal/teaching_MISC/plagiarism.htmhttp://www.valdosta.edu/~cbarnbau/personal/teaching_MISC/plagiarism.htm


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EXERCISE (1) MODEL ANSWER



How to use the info without plagiarizing

We are all thrilled by the beauty of picturesof the universe taken with space telescopesand other satellites. The pictures displayspectacular color and detail, but, as posed in"Source Article" by So-n-so, "is this the way

you would see these objects if you wentthere?

Source Article

Especially since the launch of HST and theunprecedented clarity of the imagessatellites have given us, you've all seen onthe news or in books, beautiful colorpictures of various sights in the cosmos. But

is this the way you would see these objectsif you went there? Well, to tackle thatquestion, first we have to consider thenature of light and color. Light is made ofwaves of electromagnetic radiation. Weperceive different wavelengths of visiblelight as different colors.


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EXERCISE (2)




Source Article

Until now, infrared carbon stars have beenclassified as such due to either the presenceof carbon-rich dust or to their presence inregion VII of the Habing diagram. Ourvisible spectra show conclusively that these

stars are true carbon stars and do not haveany O-rich molecules in their atmospheres.Their weak Ba lines might indicate anunder-abundance ofs-process elements.This important result, if true, wouldcertainly separate infrared carbon starsfrom the optical population.

An Example of Idea Plagiarism

Infrared carbon stars show weak Ba linesand this might mean that they do not havethe normal amount of s-process elements intheir atmospheres, making them decidedly adifferent type of star.


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EXERCISE (2) MODEL ANSWER




Source Article

Until now, infrared carbon stars have beenclassified as such due to either the presenceof carbon-rich dust or to their presence inregion VII of the Habing diagram. Ourvisible spectra show conclusively that these

stars are true carbon stars and do not haveany O-rich molecules in their atmospheres.Their weak Ba lines might indicate anunder-abundance ofs-process elements.This important result, if true, wouldcertainly separate infrared carbon starsfrom the optical population.

How to use the info without plagiarizing

The difference between optical and infraredcarbon stars might soon be resolved sinceSo-n-so (Source Article) announced that theweakness of Ba lines might indicate that theinfrared group originates from a different

population than the optical carbon stars.


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PENALTIES

University sanctions

Minor plagiarism School sanctions dealt with by unitcoordinator/personal tutor e.g. re-submit work with pass markas maximum available, written warning from HoD with copy onfile.

Major plagiarism Faculty/Institutional sanctions. Hearingbefore Student Discipline Committee. Formal warning.

UG - loss of one degree class

PG - loss of degree

Faculty contact person: Alex Scott, Student Services x65756

University policies on Student Services website

http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/examinations/exampoliciesinformation/plagiarism /
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/examinations/exampoliciesinformation/plagiarism/http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/examinations/exampoliciesinformation/plagiarism/http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/examinations/exampoliciesinformation/plagiarism/http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/examinations/exampoliciesinformation/plagiarism/http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/examinations/exampoliciesinformation/plagiarism/http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/examinations/exampoliciesinformation/plagiarism/


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AND FINALLY .

A Final Warning We will be implementing use of a service that can scan and

compare to 4.5 billion web pages and other reports.

This will allow lecturers to check the originality of work submittedby students.

Avoiding Plagiarism, Advice for Students by Dr. Hugh S Pyper

http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/apppage.cgi?USERPAGE=7510
http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/apppage.cgi?USERPAGE=7510http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/apppage.cgi?USERPAGE=7510http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/apppage.cgi?USERPAGE=7510


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Conclusions

Writing is a skill to learn Need practice

Large set of rules, dos and donts

But it is verypersonal

Use all the feedback (from lab reports, vacation essays,dissertations,)


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Documents

How to Write a Lab Report Talk[1]