SECTION 3: A GUIDE TO 2.672 LAB REPORT WRITING
ELEMENTS OF A LABORATORY REPORT
(in the desired order)
1. Title page
2. Abstract
3. Table of Contents*
4. List of Symbols*
5. Introduction
6. Apparatus and Procedure
7. Theoretical Analysis
8. Experimental Results
9. Discussion
10. Conclusions (and Recommendations)
11. Appendices*
12. References
*Optional
The order of the theory section and experiment section is not rigid. You can present either one of them
first. For short technical reports like the ones you will write for 2.672, it is optional to include a table of
contents and list of symbols.
Individual reporting
You can share ideas, data and results with your group members. You need, however, to write your own project
report.
Focus on your contribution
You should focus on your contributions to the understanding and solution of your project problem. You
developed a model to characterize the problem. It is a remarkable achievement. Although your model may not
be perfect, it is an important tool to understand the essential physical processes . Write your report to help
people understand and solve real-world engineering problems. Do not write the report focusing on how
inaccurate your model is.
Writing style
In general, do not use “I” , “we”, “he”, or “she” in technical writing. Here are some examples.
Example 1. “This work developed an engineering model to predict wafer temperature during hot-plate
photoresist processing.”
Example 2. “The experimental system consists of three major parts.”
Number of significant digits
If you report a temperature of 100.002 C, it suggests that the temperature error is less than 0.001 C. You should
present your results with the right number of significant digits to represent the accuracy of your experiments
and model simulations.
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