General Lab Report Guidelines Lab reports should be 4 to 6 type-written pages in double-space.

Figures, graphs, tables, and References page do not count towards this page limit. Use complete sentences; grammar, spelling, and neatness do count. You should proofread the report using spell-check and grammar-check before printing, and correct errors before submission. Print your paper at least a few hours before it is due to give you time to deal with computer and printing problems that sometimes occur. Computer or printer problems are not considered valid excuses for late lab reports and you will lose points. A copy of your lab report must also be posted in your lab section on Blackboard (Lab Reports link) before your regular lab period. The lab reports are due two weeks after the experiment at the beginning of the lab period, unless specifically indicated in the laboratory schedule. Lab reports turned in after the lab period are already considered late and you will lose 2 points. For each day the lab report is turned in late, you will receive a 5-point deduction. You MUST attend the lab and run the experiments or you will not be allowed to submit a lab report. Remember, be brief and to the point. Do your own work; lab reports are not a collaborative work. In other words, do not plagiarize from another student or from an outside source (this includes cutting and pasting from any web page). Do not cite Wikipedia or any other online encyclopedia. The minimum penalty for someone who is caught plagiarizing is a zero for the entire lab report. **************************************************************************** Grading breakdown: Title: Introduction: Materials and Methods: Results: Discussion and Conclusion: References: Spelling, Grammar: Correct format: Posted on Blackboard on Time: Total 1 7 5 6 8 4 2 1 1 35 points

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Lab Report Guidelines for Enzymes Lab 1. Format: 1-inch margins, Times New Roman, font 12, double-spaced 2. 4- to 6-page limit for text only (drawings, pictures, tables, or graphs, and References page do not count toward that limit) 3. Number the pages bottom right corner! 4. The title of your paper should be specific, descriptive and concise (do not write Lab report #1 or Enzymes lab report or Amylase). 5. Introduction: a. Start by talking about amylase (how it works, where it can be found, what affects its activity, which one you were working with, etc.) and then introduce the reader to your experiment. b. You may include figures in this section (you dont have to, but if you do, then do not forget to put (Figure 1) or as seen in Fig. 1 in the text after you mention them!). c. State the hypothesis(es) and prediction(s) in the last paragraph. d. Dont forget to cite throughout the text (author, year), for example: (Stevens and Thompson, 2001) e. Written in present tense (hypothesis in future tense, and if mentioning previously found data use past tense) 6. Materials and Methods: Explain the procedure so someone who needs to repeat this experiment clearly understands all the steps and will be able to repeat it in the same exact way. do not use bullet points do not list all the materials one by one include them in your procedure description written in passive form and past tense (e.g. Planaria were cut ) written in paragraph form italicize species names 7. Results: mention your results (but do not discuss about anything) and refer reader to see appropriate figure(s), table(s) and graph(s). Label correctly those figures! For example, below the graph that tested the effect of temperature on amylase write something like this: Figure 1. The influence of different temperatues on amylase activity. Write ONLY about the AMYLASE experiments, not about the catechol oxidase experiments. Choose one factor out of the three that you tested in lab and write only about that factor in your M&Ms, Results and Discussion. 8. Discussion and Conclusion: use past tense to state what you found out, whether or not your hypotheses were correct, discuss your findings, mention those figures, tables and graphs again throughout the text, compare your data with other researchers findings (cite those authors) to prove the results you got are valid (or not). You need to rephrase the information you got from your sources and cite the authors you cannot just put the text from those scientific papers in quotations and cite the authors. Explain why something went wrong, what you could have done differently, and in the end propose future experiments and talk about implications of your research.

9. References (or Works Cited): 3 scientific sources minimum primary scientific articles (2 at least) and secondary scientific articles (review papers). Other sources such as your textbook and lab manual cannot be used for this assignment only papers from scientific journals. Random websites with enzyme information cannot be cited at all. All sources need to be correctly (!) written and put in alphabetical order. When citing throughout the text, if you have 3 or more authors you can put for example (Clark et al., 2004), but in References section you have to write all their last names and first name initials (here you cannot put Clark et al.). Use the APA citation style (document posted on Blackboard under Lab-related Documents in your lecture section). For more instructions on how to write lab reports read Pecheniks A Short Guide to Writing about Biology (if you purchased the custom Campbell Biology 9th edition textbook at the USC bookstore then you have a password for the electronic version of this book and you also have three chapters at the end of your textbook). Some useful information about this assignment can also be found in Lab Report Sections posted on BB in your lab section. Carefully reading scientific papers (not skipping sections just to read the Results or Discussion) will help you figure out what goes into which section.