ME260W Lab Report Preparation Guidelines

Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Connecticut Storrs, Connecticut Past experience shows that even the best students often do not present a well written, clear lab report which is a significant input towards their final grades in this course! "he weighting factor of the lab reports is #$%, greater than that of the exams! &t is very important to ma'e an extra effort to document your report in a meaningful format! "he following is a guide for the students to prepare their lab reports! (! /! 0! 4! )our report must be prepared using a word processor such as Microsoft *ffice +ord or e,uivalent! -andwritten reports and.or handwritten sections in the report are not acceptable! )our report must starts with a cover.title page following the format of the sample cover page provided on the course website! )our report must be in grammatically correct English with due attention paid to writing style recommended by the 1SME 1uthor2s 3it! 5asic format re,uirements are listed below! 1ny deviation will result in grade deduction! a! b! c! d! e! f! g! h! i! =! '! #! 6o more than 12 pages 7excluding cover page and 1ppendices8! Use (!# line spacing! Use (/pt font, "imes 6ew 9oman or 1rial type face are recommended! Use /# mm 7(:8 margins all the around each page! Page must be numbered; the page follows the cover page should be numbered Page (! <igure must include a caption placed right below the figure; figure caption should be self explained; figures must be placed in the text, numbered consecutively! "ables must include a caption placed right above the table; tables must be placed in the text, numbered consecutively! E,uations must be numbered consecutively; e,uation numbers must flush either left or right! 9eferences must be placed after main text and before the appendix; references must be numbered consecutively and the style follow those recommended in 1SME author2s 'it! &n text citations, figures, tables, references, or e,uations must be cited in the correct numbers! 1ll calculation, tabulation, derivation, etc!, must be conducted in S& units; English unit is acceptable only when S& translations are provided!

Use of headings and subheadings are re,uired throughout the report to have logical parts! "he following section structure is recommended> Cover Page Provide report title, course number and name, author?s name, instructor?s name, and date

Abstract 7less than @ of a page8 Must be in paragraph format Do 6*" rewrite the ob=ectives from the lab handouts <ocus on highlights only! 5ring the crux of the topic and the solution to attention! 1n abstract is a very critical part of a report! "he purpose of this section is to outline the methodology and the important conclusions resulting from the lab! "his should be accomplished using a very minimum of words! Many people read only the abstract to determine whether or not the report should be read in detail! Do not slight the wor' you have done by presenting an inade,uate abstract! Table o Contents !o"enclature #ntroduction 7one page minimum8 a! Provide bac'ground information that is essential to your lab; any irrelevant information should not be included; b! 1c'nowledge the existing 'nowledge supporting your wor'; use reference citations; c! Clearly provide an ob=ective statement for the experiment to be conducted; d! 5rief overall view of what your report will include; T$eor% "he theory behind the lab experiment should be described 7 i.e!, physical and.or mechanical concepts8! 1ppropriate formulae should be presented to substantiate any concepts previously mentioned! &f necessary, diagrams may be drawn to help explain concepts! E&peri"ental 'etup and Procedures 7one page minimum8 "his section should include figures and.or bloc' diagrams of the experimental setup whenever possible! &t should explain the experimental apparatus, the measurements ta'en, the accuracy of these measurements, and extraneous inputs that might influence the experiment! "he techni,ues used in ta'ing measurements should be explained! &t should describe the process rather than give step by step procedures! +rite in paragraphs 7please do not copy from your handout8! Results and (iscussion 7two pages minimum8 Experimental results are presented in this section! 5ased on the 'nowledge you learned so far, a discussion should be provided in this section to =ustify the results obtained both theoretically and experimentally! "he experimental and theoretical results should be compared with each other! Experimental errors should be analyAed! 1ny agreement or disagreement among the results should be discussed, and the reasons for the agreement and.or disagreement should be provided in terms of physics, mechanics, or other scientific concepts!

&f you put a graph in the 9esults section, explain.discuss it! &f a graph has nothing to be explained or discussed, it should probably not be there in your report! Plot data as much as possible 7charts are better viewed than tables8 and use S& units! Conclusion 7less than @ of a page8 1ny significant results of the experiment should be pointed out in this section! "his section includes comparison of theoretical and experimental results 7usually in percent difference8! 1ny positive statement concerning the results should be made! 7i.e!, 7a8 this experiment correctly represents the physical conditions of the problem; 7b8 the data collected may be used with an expected error less than BBBBB percent8! "his is another section of the report that may be read by many people if the abstract is interesting! Re erences text; Appendi& &nclude any additional information such as> computer programs, flow charts, e,uipment descriptions, raw data sheets, sample calculations, lengthy, non essential derivation or illustration, etc! "he complete calculations for at least one set of readings must be shown in detail in an appendix entitled CSample CalculationsC! D! )our report will be graded with following evaluation system> F! *ther remar's Do not restate whatever is in the handout in your report; *verall ,uality 7#%8 1c'nowledgment of existing 'nowledge 7#%8 Completeness of reported wor' 7#%8 Correctness of reported wor' 7($%8 9eference E 1ppendix 7#%8 Clarity in writing, figures, tables, etc! 7#%8 9eport organiAation 7#%8 "heoretical analysis 7(#%8 Experimentation 7(#%8 Data interpretation E discussion 7($%8 1bstract 7($%8 Conclusions 7($%8 Must be present, and be listed and numbered; 1ll sources where you draw information must be ac'nowledged in the Use standardiAed formats suggested in the 1SME 1uthor2s 3it! Must be published information, e.g!, boo's, papers, websites, etc! People are not references, neither are previous lab reports!

Since your report will be read by other people 7mostly outside people8, it has to be easily understandable so that an engineer can redo the experiment from your report!