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Online Study Skills Hub: Lab Reports

Competencies essential for academic and professional success

Report Writing Checklist

Lab report writing checklist

This checklist is based on Key research and study skills in psychology (McGee, 2010)*.

You will need to adapt it to your subject area and refer to specifications in your report assessment brief.

General Report Structure

Title

Abstract

Introduction/Literature Review

Aims

Methods

Results

Discussion/Conclusion

Reference List

Appendix

 

Abstract

• Is there an informative introductory sentence?

• Have you described the participants?

• Have you adequately described the methods?

• Are the results adequately described? Units? F/ t/ r values? P values?

• Is there a conclusion which matches the data?

 

Introduction
  •  Is the point of conducting the experiment clearly defined?
  •  Is the current experiment grounded in previous research?
  • Are the hypotheses clear and linked to research?
  • Is it clear why the methods were chosen?
Aims
  • Is the point of conducting the experiment clearly defined?
  •  Is the current experiment grounded in previous research?
  • Are the hypotheses clear?
Methods

• Is the design clearly describing the factors involved, including the dependant variable(s)?

• Has the sample group been described accurately?

• Have protocols been written down clearly and logically?

• Have all the materials used in the experiment been correctly identified and their use correctly described?

• Have all the steps in the procedures been dealt with and clearly explained?

• Has the statistical test you have used been described?

 

Results

• Have all the data tables and results been created by you and not copied and pasted from SPSS or Excel?

• Are all the tables and figures are labelled clearly with a number and title – (titles at the top for tables and at the bottom for figures)?

• Is all the data presented in appendices?

• Is all the data is the table explained and units given?

• Do figures have titles, labelled axes, a key if appropriate? Is all the information on the figure? (n, r value, P value, regression equation).

• Are the main findings of the experiment written in paragraph form?

 

Discussion

• If a hypothesis was given, are the main findings of the experiment discussed in light of the hypothesis?

• Have you started with your main result(s)?

• Are the results of the present study compared with earlier work in the literature?

• Are the results discussed with respect to the underlying concepts/ theory?

• Are any anomalies/ limitations/ individual results addressed?  

• Have you made suggestions for future studies?

• Is a conclusion/summary statement given?

 

Referencing

• Have appropriate resources been used? (peer-reviewed journals, books)

• Do all the sources in the text match those in the reference section?

• Is the referencing in the correct style (refer to the referencing style guide specified by your department)?

• Have you put the reference list in alphabetical order?

 

Proofreading (do this yourself and get a friend to do it for you, too)

• Read once for flow of argument. Is there a logical progression of ideas? Does it makes see? Can a reader see how you have arrived at an answer?

• Read a second time for grammar and punctuation and general typos.

• Read a third time to check that all of your referencing is correct.

• Read a fourth time to check the formatting of the overall report e.g. margins, font, spacing, etc.

 

Reference *McGee, S. (2010) 'Writing reports', in Key research & study skills in psychology, SAGE Publications Ltd, London. pp. 152-173. Available at: http://methods.sagepub.com/book/key-research-and-study-skills-inpsychology/n8.xml (Accessed: 22/9/24).