biomedical instrumentation lab
03/27/2018:
Some Tips for Reports of
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Below are Guidlines to follow when writing each written section of your lab report. It is very important to keep them in mind when writing your report. You should know these already, by now, from the many lab reports you have written by now in your previous classes:
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1. In general:
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(1) Write More.
If you wrote less than the maximum amount of space allotted for any section, chances are that you have not written enough, and are doing something wrong. This is not always the case, but the grader's experience, it is 95% of the time. Write, write, write. And go through what you have written. And ask yourself if this is getting the message across. If not: Edit, Edit, Edit.
(2) Do Not Write Vaguely.
Every semester, most students write vaguely in at Least 1 section or another (abstract, discussion, methods, etc...). Send the message you want across, and use details. If too brief/general, then the audience will not know what you are saying. You must write the report so a stranger can pick it up and understand what is going on. You still need to include details, in case that person wants to re-do your experiments. The one exception here is your methods: You don't have to write word for word what you have done. Just, give a detailed summary, i.e., do not write: "many different circuits were built, using different circuit components". Don't write "the properties of filters were analyzed...".
The Grader wants to know what filter settings yielded the best results, what op-amp configurations you used, and what you concluded from manipulating them, HOW you manipulated them, etc... You don't have to cover/mention every single thing, but talk about enough points for each lab, to show: what you have learned, or: what the results are or: what the message is.
(3) Write in Passive, Past Tense.
Please write in PASSIVE, PAST TENSE. No more "I did this", or "we did that". No. You should have already been told not to do this. Despite this, most students in the past would still write this way. Learn from their mistakes. No lab reports should ever be written in any other type of voice. The only time where you can get away with it is the discussion section, where you can discuss things you have learned (from your results, or principles, etc...), along with other points. But even in this section, that shouldn't be seen much, as it is more tempting to write about your feelings. Points will be deducted much sooner for this in the next lab report.
(4) Do Not Discuss Your Feelings.
DO NOT DISCUSS YOUR FEELINGS or your PERSONAL experiences in you lab reports! Don't do it. General experiences are okay. You will loose points for this. Remember, uou are writing a scientific report, and therefore the entire report should be objective. Always keep in mind the point that you are trying to make. The audience will not gain any further understanding by learning that you had a good time in the lab... This is stuff you should put on the class evaluation instead. So, no more "I feel", or "we feel", or "This was fun, ....", or "Lab 5 was tough because <insert personal experience here>, but then our T.A.'s..." or "this was the best part for me, because X,Y, Z"... Opinions unfortunately do not bear weight in this report. (But your Instructor/T.A. will gladly look at them on a separate paper! It's helpful and nice to read your personal experience(s). They can help improve the class.) Remember, you want to be professional.
(5) Add Reference to Anything That You Copied.
If you are copying and pasting things from the class notes, rephrase them, or at least give reference to the class notes. You will get no credit otherwise.
(6) Put Efforts into Your Report.
Put effort into the report - breath life into it! And always go back through it to see if you need to edit something. To write anything well, requires ~2-3 edits, on average. This applies to the President's State of the Union, a middleschool student's paper, and it applies to your reports.
(7) Keep Reference in Order.
Make sure your references are in Numerical order. 95% of students never do this right. Don't risk losing points this way. Your paper looks very well done when your references are in order. Keep organized.
(8) Update Your Table of Contents.
On the same note, make sure your table of contents page is updated before you hand in or print out your report. If you do not know how to do this, or have any questions about it, contact your T.A., and they will explain it to you.
(9) Arrange Pages Properly.
Make sure you keep your title page separate from your table of Contents (which should have its own page), and put your abstract on its own page.
(10) Make Each Section Self-Consistent.
When writing each section, assume the reader has not read any other section. Each section should be able to stand alone. Fill in any blanks, keep the reader in tune with what you are writing about.
(11) A Suggestion.
It helps when writing each section to discuss things lab by lab, and discuss the points from each. That way you don't miss any labs. (Just a suggestion).
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2. Introduction Section
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(1) Background:
* You don't need to go into the history of every device. It's Not very
helpful.
* Instead, talk about, what the instruments and devices are, what they
are used for, [why we care about this (can do this facet in 1
sentence!], and just aim to give your audience a general
understanding, so they can follow along with the rest of your
report. You are giving them/the grader the tools needed to understand your
findings, and assimilate them.
(2) Significance:
* Use your own words.
* tell me what were some of the most important parts of the lab? Not
all of the significance is covered by the 'goals'. There are more
points to list.
* Give (some) details. If too vague, there is nothing to learn. Ask
for examples if you want.
(3) Methods and Materials:
* This is not a play-by-play of every action performed in each lab,
but neither should it be brief.
* Mention what you have generally done in each lab, listing specific
things. E.g., "In lab 4, a differential op-amp circuit was built,
and the function of high-pass filters were studied by removing..."
* I don't want to read: Filters were studied and op-amp circuits were
built and analyzed. I want to know what kind of analysis, what kind
of circuit, what kind of op-amp (differential, integrating,
non-inverting? etc..), and what kind of filter?
o If the reader wants to know more detail (as in, word-for-word
instructions, as the methods used should be clear), then they
can refer to the class notes. That is why they are referenced.
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3. Discussion Section:
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* This section always has the most confusion.
* In this section, you should talk about what the results are telling
you. There are pages and pages of results... so it is easy to gloss
over them. Therefore, in this section, you should tell the reader what
the results mean, what you can infer, and what you have learned from them
in THIS manner. I'm more interested in seeing you talk about your results,
and describe what they mean, than anything else. That covers all
three points: what you have learned, your experience in the lab, and
what is important... you can add in more things if you feel the
need, but that is essentially what is being asked of you.
* This should be about 1 page long. If you have half a page... you
aren't doing it right.
o This should tell you that you are too vague, and are not giving
me enough details. What are the best settings for your filter,
how did removing the high-pass filter(s) affect the circuit, how
did adding in a L.P. filter affect the circuit, what does your
results tell you, when you see that supplying less power to the
op-amp yields different output values? Etc.
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4. Conclusion Section:
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* This is a true summary, of both results and discussion sections.
Give the overall message - what are the important bits?
* You can get away with saying, the students learned about this in lab
1, they did that in lab 2, etc... But that is a weak conclusion, and
you will get a lower score.
* What have you learned? "In lab 1, the students verified the
functionality and principles of the potentiometer.... and also
learned that there generally is more noise in actual voltage and
currents measured, when compared to the ideal, from...", "In lab 5,
including the L.P. filter and adding an extra op-amp to the ECG
circuit allowed students to measure a clearer ECG signal on the
oscilloscope, ..."
o Note how many more active verbs are here, compared to the
previous point.
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5. ABSTRACT Section:
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* As the report says, Always write this section LAST.
* This is very important, as it is worth 15% of your report.
* Write ~1 sentence on why you are focusing on a certain area. (if you want.
Not required.)
* A few (2-4) <BRIEF> sentences on what was done/covered.
* Mention the important results.
* This is almost like condensing each section, and putting a little
bit of everything in this paragraph.
* The Idea is for someone to pick up your report, look at your abstract,
and determine if it is what they are looking for.
o Perhaps they need to know how to incorporate H.P. filters, or how
to construct a differential op-amp circuit, or even the best parameters
to use in LabView... In all of these cases, your lab report is
beneficial to them!
o This is what hooks readers to your report. Are your results
helpful to them? Your (REALLY BRIEF) methods?
Though this is a long document, you will thank yourself once you have through it all, and taken all of the advice. Following this will not only help you to get an A on the report; More importantly, it will help you better understand the course's material. If you have a good report, then you don't have to study your class notes as much, as you have learned them when writing the report, and therefore you can focus more on reviewing your report. This will save you time and effort when studying for the exam.