Abstract

The Abstract is a condensed statement of the important information contained in the complete report. It is the epitome of a summary and is written in the present tense. It stresses the objective and conclusions. An Abstract allows the reader to survey the purpose, content, and conclusions of a report quickly. The two most important requirements of an abstract are that it be concise and informative. To accomplish this, the abstract is usually written last.

Introduction

The primary function of an Introduction is to let the reader know the importance of the work and to clearly define the objective. Once this is stated, a brief plan of development should follow. A well-constructed Introduction should stimulate reader interest and summarize the contents of the report. Background information of a theoretical or historical nature may be warranted to support this preliminary information. As you would expect, the Introduction is that section that introduces the work to the reader. The beginning of the Introduction usually explains the problem and the obiective of the report. Journalists are taught to answer the five W's: who, what, where, when and why. It is probably a good idea to keep these in mind when writing your Introduction and to answer those W's that are pertinent to your objective. For example, the WHO might be the?names of previous investigators that you found in a literature search.?The WHAT would be the problem statement. The WHY might be pertinent applications of your results. The WHERE and WHEN are obvious.

The Introduction is used to acquaint the reader with the material of the report. As part of this presentation it is advisable to state some of the important principles of the work and enumerate assumptions.

Analysis

The Analysis section is used to develop a pertinent theory based on the basic principles that explain the phenomenon you are investigating. Most experimental studies involve the interaction of a variety of complex influences and subtleties. The purpose of the analysis is to remove the mask of complexity and expose the underlying facts. It is a process of systematic thinking, combining logical assumptions with basic principles to develop a relationship that explains your results. This relationship is usually the hypothesis that is the subject of the report. The experiment is the study of this hypothesis to test if your assumptions and logic are correct.

The Analysis is usually interspersed with equations. It is not simply a series of equations devoid of explanatory material. The explanation of technical material is naturally associated with mathematics.?Assumptions, which are expressed in words, are?transformed into their mathematical equivalents. Basic principles are also expressed in mathematical terms and are combined with the assumptions to develop the hypothesis. Intermediate steps showing the algebra and calculus, while necessary to the development of the hypothesis, are not shown. However, your presentation should be complete enough that a peer could duplicate your work. It is?frustrating to see the expression,?"it can readily be seen that"?between two equations which bear no apparent relationship one to the other. If some real detail is necessary to fully explain a particular point but is extraneous to your basic presentation, then this work belongs in an appendix.

Equations must be presented clearly with explanatory material relating the equation to the remainder of the report. Symbols should be defined when they are first introduced. All the symbols in an equation must be defined. However, it is not necessary to redefine terms once they have been presented. If the report contains a number of unfamiliar symbols, give a nomenclature section.

Procedure

This section describes the apparatus and details the experimental procedure for taking measurements. In this section, you must explain what was measured and how you measure it. You should provide sufficient detail so that the experiment can be replicated using the same or equivalent equipment. Drawings showing the setup are often useful. They can be an aid in describing certain measurements and they should show the interconnections of the various instruments.

The Procedure does not contain results. You can explain that 20 separate tests were performed. You can say that the means and standard deviation were calculated, but you do not give the numerical values. These values are presented in the Results Section.

Discussion of Results

Results are the facts. They are the data you collected and the data you calculated. Means, standard deviations, confidence intervals and errors are all results.

Present the results in a logical and concise fashion. You can place sample calculations in this section. But if you want detail and an explanation of a series of extraneous calculations, then use an appendix. In general, the detailed calculations of the experimental errors are best placed in an appendix unless the analysis of the errors?is the object of the report.

Do not transcribe your raw data. These are the numbers you recorded from your experimentation. A Xerox or carbon copy of the data should be in the appendix forming the last page of your report.?Thus, it is important to keep a neat, clear and informative laboratory notebook, and all your lab partners could have the same identical last page of their report.

In the Procedure, you explained how and what were measured.?Now you give the results. The results are the facts; given the same raw data, the reader should get the same results. Repeating the experiment should give similar results. But even when the results are identical, readers may interpret the results differently weighing certain information more heavily. These interpretations of the results are called conclusions.

Conclusions

It is interesting that, given the same results, two people can draw two different conclusions, and neither conclusion is necessarily incorrect. That is not to say that any conclusion is correct but that a conclusion is personal; it is your interpretation of the results and is subjective. However, the conclusion should relate to the objective of the report.

Students hesitate to make conclusions for fear of being wrong.?" This method of determining the coefficient of friction was a?reasonably good way of obtaining fairly accurate results," says?nothing. It straddles the issue and avoids being wrong. It is better to be decisive when the results warrant a decision.

Some legitimate conclusions are:

(a) This experiment showed that the coefficient of static friction between aluminum and brass is not a simple value but can vary by as much as 50%

(b) This experiment showed that it is not necessary to use sophisticated or expensive equipment to obtain accurate results.

(c) For an experiment stressing precision, the equipment was unusually crude. No wonder the results had such variability. Better equipment would have given more precise answers.

All these conclusions may be valid; it depends upon the results.?Remember that conclusions are not facts. They are your interpretation of the facts, and these interpretations should pertain to the objective of the report. They should bring your report to a sensible finish.