A (Mostly) Correctly Formatted Sample Lab Report. Brett A. McGuire Lab Partner: Microsoft Windows Section AB2

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1 A (Mostly) Correctly Formatted Sample Lab Report Brett A. McGuire Lab Partner: Microsoft Windows Section AB2 August 26, 2008

2 Abstract Your abstract should not be indented and be single-spaced. Abstracts should be around 100 words long and may not exceed 150 words. You can easily say everything you need to say within that limit. Although you are held accountable for everything the lab manual tells you should go in an abstract, I would like to emphasize the need for pertinent chemical reactions, equations used, and specific results obtained (this is where the majority of the points will come from). abs = εl[x] Equations and reactions that are listed belong indented on their own lines with a blank line above and below them, but not numbered, as shown above. Abstracts should be short, succinct, and to the point. Introduction Don t forget, you ve already written the introduction in your pre-lab. Just make any necessary changes and copy/paste it into your lab report. Section headings should have a line above and below them and be 12 pt and bolded. Your paper should conform to the following formatting guidelines without exception. Use a serif font (Times, Times New Roman, Helvetica) in 12 pt size Be double-spaced everywhere except in the abstract and in tables, charts, etc Use 1 margins on all four sides of the paper Your title page must look exactly like mine: 12 pt font, evenly spaced, and using the title of the experiment as your title Pages should be numbered. I don t really care where, but number them. All chemical reaction equations should be written in net ionic form with states given [(aq), (s), etc] and appropriate arrows. is a one-way reaction arrow is an equilibrium arrow is a resonance arrow. Don t mix the arrows up; they all mean different things and the wrong arrow in the wrong place will lose points. All of these arrows are available in the symbols section of Word or other editors. The first time you mention a chemical substance, give its name followed by its chemical formula in ( )s. After that, refer to it by its chemical formula only. 1

3 All figures/structures of compounds must be generated in ChemDraw. You can download ChemDraw for free at Starting with the introduction and continuing until the end of the paper, all equations and reactions should be indented, with blank lines above and below, and sequentially numbered exactly as shown below. x 0 f(x)dx All formulas must be typed using MathType or Equation Editor. I actually prefer the less advanced Equation Editor, but it is up to you. Access in Word by following insert object Microsoft Equation 3.0. Numbers involving exponents, chemical formulae, and other math-like text which is used inline may never be done using Math Type or Equation Editor. Here is an example of a chemical formula which should be formatted using Word s superscript and subscript functions: [Fe(phen) 2 P 2 O 7 ] 2. Here is an example of a complex number which should be formatted using Word s superscript and subscript functions: You may access these formatting options through the font dialog box or by using the shortcuts ctrl + = for subscript and ctrl + shift + = for superscript. Further, division operations should never be represented by the / symbol; instead, either the item should be formatted using Math Type using the traditional horizontal bar as shown in Equation 2 or it should make use of negative exponents. In almost all cases, units should be formatted using negative exponents as in this example: mol L 1. In the case of fractional numbers, such as one-half, use decimal equivalents instead (i.e. 0.5 instead of 1/2). (1) L atm mol K Anytime you need to refer to an equation you have already typed out, reference it by saying Equation x, where x is the equation number. Let s talk about multiplication. When multiplication symbols are necessary, the multiplication dot should almost always be used. The exceptions to this are when writing in scientific notation and when multiplying horizontal fractions or other very large, non-bracketed quantities. In this case, the traditional times symbol is appropriate. An example of the correct mixed usage of the these two symbols is shown in Equation 3. (2) atoms mol 5! = atoms mol (3) 2

4 Materials and Methods In this section, you are to write out the experimental procedure that you performed in lab, paying special attention to any deviations that occurred from the procedure given in the manual. This section is not to be a list. It must be in prose (paragraph) form and be in complete sentences like the rest of the report. Remember, your pre-lab used a list for the materials and methods section; do not forget to change this to prose format here. Now is a good time to talk about referencing papers, the lab manual, etc in text. I require that all references be done using the footnote feature in Word (or whatever word processor you have). No matter what processor you are using, I am positive it has footnote capabilities. If you can t figure out how to use footnotes, please let me know. Please trust me on this, if you try to fake a footnote by inserting your own line, shrinking the text, etc, I will be able to tell and it will upset me. It s not a hard process and footnotes are generally preferred to a references section in most papers these days. I ve included the proper way to cite the lab manual on the next line. This experiment was performed based on the procedures detailed in An Introduction to Chemical Systems in the Laboratory. 1 Please follow this exact procedure and we ll all be a lot happier =). For more details on references, please see the references section. Results All information in this section must be in the form of a table, graph, or chart. Anything not in a table, graph, or chart does not exist (read: will be completely ignored and not graded). The only exceptions to this are calculations which should be displayed below the appropriate data. Tables don t need to be fancy, but they do need to be consistent throughout the paper. It is not necessary to have borders around every cell. If you want a good guide for a nicely formatted scientific table, see Tables 1-3 below. You should strive to make your table look as much like mine as possible. If you would like help, please come see me. Tables/Charts/Figures/etc may NEVER EVER be spread over two pages. Charts and graphs should have labeled axes and have a clear background; titles go in the caption, not on the graph itself. Gray backgrounds and gridlines are inappropriate in scientific writing. See Figure 1 below for a good example. Your graphs should look as close to mine as possible. Please generate them in Excel and copy/paste them over. 1 University of Illinois Department of Chemistry, An Introduction to Chemical Systems in the Laboratory, 2007,

5 Now would be a good time to talk about captions. Each figure, table, etc should include an informative title that explains (succinctly) what is found in the table, graph, etc. I should be able to skim the titles of a 10 page results section in 10 seconds and find exactly what I m looking for. Table 1: Limiting Reactants and Theoretical Masses Reaction Limiting Reactant Mass Cu(s) (g) Eq. 1 Fe Eq. 2 CuSO g Cu = g Fe 1 mol F e g F e g Cu = g CuSO 4 1 mol CuSO g CuSO 4 1 mol Cu g Cu 1 mol F e 1 mol Cu 1 mol Cu 1 mol CuSO 4 = g Cu g Cu 1 mol Cu = g Cu Table 2: Reactions, Oxidations States, and Molar Ratios Cu (II) SO 4 (aq) + Fe 0 (s) Cu 0 (s) + Fe (II) SO 4 (aq) Oxidation States Molar Ratios Cu Fe CuSO 4 :Cu Fe:Cu :1 1:1 3Cu (II) SO 4 (aq) + 2Fe 0 (s) 3Cu 0 (s) + Fe (III) 2 (SO 4 ) 3 (aq) Oxidation States Molar Ratios Cu Fe CuSO 4 :Cu Fe:Cu :1 2:3 Table 3: Sample Model Results Case Method #1 Method #2 Method #

6 ln([cu]) (M) Current (ma) Figure 1: Energy vs Current - Trial 2: [Cu 2+ ] = 2.0 M Energy (kj mol -1 ) In the case that you are generating a plot and fitting a line to it, please use an XY scatter plot, with no line connecting the points, add the trendline, and display both the equation and the R 2 value on the graph as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2: First-Order Reaction Plot - Trial 298K and 2 atm y = x R² = Time (min) 5

7 Error Analysis For more information on this section, refer to the lab manual. The most important thing to note is that for similar calculations, results should be reported in tables and there should be at least one sample calculation for every calculation you perform. This section is only for mathematical error analysis. Aside from the occasional descriptive heading, no text or prose should occur here. Discussion Here I m going to discuss a few of the less formatting-oriented and more style and grammar-oriented things that I expect from you. First and foremost I would like to emphasize my number one rule which, if you violate, will instantly lose you all of your readability points, no exceptions. Never, ever, under any circumstances, should you ever write in first or second person. Everything must be written in third person without exception! Next, please 1) use paragraphs and 2) indent the start of your paragraphs. I know it sounds silly, but some people forget to do it. Further, the comma has been drastically under-used and misused in the past. Please make an effort to use this punctuation mark when appropriate. Even more important is basic English grammar. Spelling absolutely does count, as does subject/verb agreement, run-on sentences, sentence fragments, etc. Finally, please write in past tense when appropriate (which is most of the time). References Here you should list your references as they are listed in the lab manual even though you used footnotes. I have asked you to use footnotes throughout as it is easier for me to read, easier for you to make sure you do not forget to cite something, and also a common technique in scientific writing. Since you used footnotes, simply copy and paste the text from them here and spend two minutes reformatting it to fit the format in the lab manual. An alternative to the lab manual formatting, and also my personal preference, is to use official ACS style formatting. You can find an example at Also, you can probably find a hard copy of the ACS style guide in the UIUC library. This guide is one of the best places to go if you have formatting questions for scientific writing - I use it all the time. 6