AP Physics B

Mr. Poley

Formal Lab Report

Writing Guidelines

Format

The report has to be typed, with reasonable paper margins and type size. The report must be written in complete sentences and in narrative form. Spelling counts. Diagrams, graphs, and sample calculations are the only part that may be done by hand. They must be in the body of the report; they will not count if they are on separate sheets of paper attached to the end of the report. To receive full credit, the report must be a description of what was done, written in the passive voice. The use of the personal pronouns “I”, “my”, “we”, and “our”, and writing out a list of instructions, should be avoided.

Good Example: “The cart was released from the top of the ramp.”

Bad Example 1: “I released the cart from the top of the ramp.”

Bad Example 2: “Release the cart from the top of the ramp.”

If you want to print the report out to hand in, you may. You may also submit it electronically in either Microsoft Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). However, if you want to submit it electronically, you must have all the graphs, diagrams, and sample calculations included in the document. Mr. Poley can show you how to include computer-generated mathematical equations, diagrams, and graphs in the document. Otherwise, they must be scanned in and inserted in the correct place.

Parts to Be Included:

• Title
• Purpose / Hypothesis
• In Physics, the hypothesis can usually be best stated as a mathematical expression. This still needs to be in complete sentences.
• Materials and Procedure
• See the above tips on the style of the procedure. The procedure may be outline numbered or not.
• Data and Calculations
• Data must be included in tables and typed. For an individual calculation, the calculation work must be shown. For a series of repetitive calculations, a sample must be shown of the first calculation; the rest of the calculated values can be merely typed in.
• Graphs are considered part of the data. Graphs must have a title in the form (dependent variable) vs. (independent variable), labeled axes with the independent variable on the x-axis unless otherwise noted, units on the axes, and data points clearly shown, along with the trend curve or line. Graphs must be computer-generated or on graph paper.
• Conclusion
• In this section, you do the following: restate the purpose, identify the independent and dependent variables, talk about what the results showed, give explanations for results, and evaluate the correctness of the hypothesis.
• You will also often be asked specific analysis questions. They are to be answered here, in complete sentences, with the answer re-stating the question.