lab report

1. Start right after the results, no page break or extra returns. Center the word "Discussion" in bold.

2. The discussion tells your reader your interpretation of the results in light of the hypothesis. The discussion also connects the results to the literature. The global organization is a triangle, as in Figure L5.1. The discussion section has three parts (not necessarily labeled).

Figure L5.1. The triangle format of a discussion section.

a. Summary of the results.

What are the main results of your experiment? Briefly summarize the main points again in plain English. Then, say what that means. It will either be "The hypothesis was supported..." or "The hypothesis was not supported...". You don't want to repeat the statistics here.

b. Connection to the literature.

What does this mean in light of the literature review? Don't repeat what you said before, but evaluate your results. If they're different from other researchers' results, tell me how. If they're similar, state that. The big question: What have you contributed? What do I know now that I didn't know before? You're broadening your interpretation. You may make some less than concrete statements about the implications. You may speculate on where to go with further research and what your data say about what new research will uncover. If there are limitations to the data, report those.

c. Conclusion. What is the take-home message? If I remember just one thing you said, what would you want that to be? This is a single sentence paragraph at the end that starts with the words "In conclusion."

Use the notes above to develop a discussion section based on our project. The hypothesis was supported. What does that mean? Use some of your articles from the introduction, or add some more from the annotated bibliography in Lab Notes 2. Be sure to include the conclusion.