Writing a Report There are a range of different types of reports such as laboratory, progress, site, feasibility, and proposal

reports, but all reports tend to be divided into three main parts: Preliminary information (e.g. title page, abstract, table of contents, list of illustrations) The body of the report Supplementary information (e.g. references, appendices) The body is the most important part. It usually contains the following sections:

Modified from: Swales, J and C. Feak (2000) English in Todays Research World: a Writing Guide, Michigan: Ann Arbor Introduction provides background information that leads to why you did this experiment and a clear statement of your hypothesis/es for this experiment. You should refer to another source here Methods explains how you performed the experiment. For your Biology report you can simply say refer to page of the Biology Workbook) Results provides the data you collected during the experiment, which is presented in a clear and logical manner table, graph, (statistical significance if appropriate - not for this Biology report) Discussion explains the results in light of the information you talked about in your introduction, including a response to your original hypothesis/es. Here you can also discuss any unexpected results and why you might have observed these. Remember that unexpected results are never necessarily wrong, but may require further experimentation so that they can be explained. Conclusion (which may include recommendations for action) this is usually only a few sentences or paragraph, which puts your result in the context of a wider body of knowledge and indicates its significance. Partly a summary but also states the validity of your hypothesis according to your data and whether your hypothesis fit with the larger body of scientific knowledge? Reference citation must include one use Harvard style

When writing a report, it is important you use a style that is clear, objective, accurate, and brief. The following example shows two paragraphs from student reports discussing an experiment on the factors affecting the rate of photosynthesis. The first report is not very clear and lacks accuracy and detail. The second report is a good example of the level of detail and clarity we expect: In this experiment this students were measuring the effect of light exposure on the rate of photosynthesis. Report 1 - part of discussion Our results were a little confusing because we got evidence of photosynthesis occurring in the control tube as well as the other tubes, which had the experiment in them. As shown in our graph, photosynthesis was still happening twice as fast in the fastest of the experimental tubes though and we think that maybe we exposed the control tube to a bit of light during the experiment so that photosynthesis could occur there as well. However, our results still show that more light causes a faster rate of photosynthesis. Report 2 - part of discussion The rate of photosynthesis, as measured by increasing oxygen concentration in the test tube, increased with the level of light exposure. We expected the rate of photosynthesis in the control tube to be zero, however there was evidence of oxygen production in this tube. This is probably the result of residual light getting into our control (dark) environment during the experiment. As a result we can conclude that an increase in light exposure increases the rate of photosynthesis, but not that the absence of light prevents it from occurring.