Guide for laboratory report creation

 

Aims of a lab report

The making of  lab reports in the university should prepare you for making them in your future jobs. Even if those will not exactly be the same as the ones we make here, there will be enough similarities for these exercises to help.

 There are multiple reasons for writing lab reports:

  • your boss wants to know your work progress
  • your collegues have to know your work results, to use them in their work
  • your clients want to know the parameters and operation of the product you're selling, and they have to be able to repeat your measurements to check these parameters
  • your clients and the government want to know your product is safe and of high quality
  • if you discover something, the lab report will allow other scientists to repeat the experiment and confirm your discovery (so you get the credit)

These reasons may help understand the criteria for a good lab report.

Furthermore, in the university, the lab reports should reflect the understanding of the subject.

It is advised to remember the aims of the laboratory subject:

  • practice building circuits
  • practice finding errors in circuits and cables
  • practice measurements, using instruments
  • learning the difference between theory and practice
  • reinforcing the theoretical studies by seeing it in practice

When writing the lab report, we especially recommend for consideration the last point. You are studying for a job where you have the opportunity to test the learned material - often very easily - in practice, and where these tests give the same results - with small error margin - all or almost all of the time. This is not true for all kinds of fields! Here, seeing that the circuits we learn and calculate in theory, work the same in practice, with very similar numerical results, helps to reinforce the studied material and helps to build a confidence in your field of expertise - ie. the knowledge that your job actually does work - that will remain with you and help you in your jobs long after you have forgotten your years in the university.

As such, it is a very bad habit - you could say a disregard of your education - to write down without reservation such results in the lab report, which clearly contradict your theoretical studies or calculations.

 

Here are some guidelines (many of them mandatory!) for creating the lab reports for Electronics I and II subjects (but useful in other subjects as well):

 

Format

For electronic lab reports, please use PDF/A file format to maximize compatibility and have the report in one file. Please give your file a name that includes your name, the subject and the measurement's number or name, for example:

John_Lennon_Electronics1_Diodes.pdf

Front page

The front page has to contain the name of the student, name of the teacher, the name of course and of the actual measurement. Use this printable front page for laboratory reports (pdf, doc).

Side note

Please note that in Hungary, the date format has the following order

YYYY.MM.DD

This order conforms to the international standard ISO8601. We recommend the use of the standard for the sake of clarity. (Sometimes you will find people writing the name of the month instead of number for extra clarity when dealing with foreign people, though it is not standardised. Also, in old tradition Hungarians often use Roman numerals for the month number.)

 

Contents

The lab report contains the tasks (exercises), the results and analysis of the results. 

For each task, give a title (what we are measuring, eg. "1. Measurement of diode characteristics"), then present a schematic or block diagram if appropriate, give the parameters (voltages, components, etc.), then the values to be measured.

The full measurement guide doesn't have to be quoted in the report (must not be!), only a short summary of the exercise. 

The results should be presented numerically (in table format if necessary) and when applicable, in graph format too (even if the lab guide doesn't tell you to do a graph, do it if possible).

Graphs should have axes with arrows and quantities and units (dimensions), scales if possible as well.

When possible, include calculations as well. Make sure to properly note which result is measured and which is calculated. When the lab guide has homework, include its results here, ie. in the measurement section for which it is appropriate. (In the lab guide, the homeworks are usually presented in the first page of the chapter, but in the lab report, please present each calculation in the section where it belongs to, for easier comparison of measured and calculated values.

The calculations should be presented similarly as we expect them in  exam: have a proper equation (formula) with quantities and indices, then substitution then result presented in SI prefix form.  This helps to find errors much easier both for you and the reader, it helps to find out if only the calculation was bad or the whole equation was wrong to start with.

The results of the measurement have to be interpreted (analysed). What was expected and why? Did we measure what was expected? If not, what is the probable reason for it? (Though if you find out the reason in time, it is advisable to repeat that part of the measurement. There may be extra measurement time allocated for such reasons, discuss it with your teacher.). Compare the measured results with the calculated values, note the differences and try to find out the reasons for them.

As a final note, take care of how your lab report looks like. Do not present something that you would not wish to  present in a job interview. If it looks like it was pulled from a dog's mouth, it will not be accepted. It's not only about aesthetics and dignity, but a nice document is also a readable, ergonomic document, that helps to prevent misunderstandings and therefore possible injuries (eg. if you are going to create design plans later).

In short, a good lab report contains the following:

  • Measurement (experiment) aims and questions.
  • Block diagram, circuit diagram of each measurent option.
  • Given parameters (component values, physical quantities etc)
  • Measuring instruments and method.
  • When possible, expected results gained from calculation
    • (include the whole calculation: formula=substitution=result in SI prefix format)​​
  • or expected result from theoretical knowledge
  • Measured quantities in numerical format, in tables when applicable
  • Measurement results in graph format, when applicable (characteristics, waveforms).
    • Even if the lab guide doesn't ask you to do it!
    • Graphs should be in XY format, usually in linear uniform axis spacing (maybe sometimes in logarithmic).
    • Use the measured value markers for the graph. Ie. don't just show lines, but the dots/squares/whatever markers for the actual points.
  • Analysis of result: comparison of theory, calculation (expectations) with measurement results.
  • All of these in an aesthetic, readable, understandable and precise format.

It is recommended to include the calculations together each actual measurement exercise and not separately in the first part of the report. Ie. write down Task 1, circuit, parameters, calculation, measurement, analysis. Then Task 2, and so on.

Useful links:

Word processors and converters

Standards and formats

Printable graph (mm and log etc) papers (you can use these for the lab report graphs)