Common Problems
Lab Reports, 2000
- Grammar - people speak using every level of the language, from strictly
adhering to the Queen's English, to slang terminology that is barely perceptible as English.
However, when you write a formal report, or give a formal talk, you must use proper English. If
you don't, you will fail to effectively communicate. I strongly believe that a few of you lost
a good number of points simply because you couldn't effectively communicate.
- On a similar note, I think some of you ignored the web page on Writing Tips. However, most
of you did seem to follow the advice on Graphing.
- Read. If you are pursuing biology, then read biology. Find some interesting articles and
read them.
Example:
- "The graphed results show
a linear relationship between the log of VO2
ml/min and the log of the body
mass (g)
Fig. 1."
- Many students put the units
in when simply mentioning the (valueless) parameter. Why? The fact that so
many of you did it suggests that you were taught to do this. Units will be revealed on the
graph or table.
- When a linear relationship is claimed, tell the reader the correlation coefficient. Doing
so will back up your claim.
- Figure references such as this one
are always placed in parentheses.
- The reader will see the graph when s/he looks at it. There's no need to say
this.
- Correct:
"There was a linear relationship (r = 0.941, p < 0.05) between
log VO2 and log body mass (Fig. 1)."
- The 'p < 0.05' tells the reader that the t-test confirms that the relationship is not
due to chance.
- Standard error is used for lab studies. However, many students chose not to plot error bars
of any sort. You must show the reader the variance within your measurements. If the error bars
are too small to see on the scale that you're using, say so.
- Introduction and Discussion: The most common problem was that people were too vague (i.e.
lacked detail) in their writing. You were asked to do a correlation coefficient - what did
others find? Very few people mentioned the metabolic rates of previously studied animals, or
the correlations found by others. Metabolic rate scales to the -0.25 power with body mass,
VO2 scales to the 0.75 power with body mass. Is this what you found? Most people
ignored this.
- Results: It wasn't always clear to me whether relationships (correlations) were for mammals
only, or for all species. However, some people would give the correlations for all species, but
then plot a trend line for only mammals.
- Citations: Patterns for citations are in the lab manual. In the body of the report, use
only the author's(s') last name(s) and the date of the publication. No initials, no titles, no
pagination.
- incorrect: "The materials and methods used were as outline in the Comparative Physiology Lab
Manual by Lauff and Marshall, 2000.
- correct: "The materials and methods were as outlined in Lauff and Marshall (2000)."