How to Write a Lab Report in Microbiology
- 1). Write a title. For microbiology lab reports, opt for informative titles over cute ones. For instance, title a report on the ubiquity of bacteria "The Ubiquity of Bacteria" instead of "Bacterial Infection" or "Conan the Bacterium."
- 2). Compose an abstract. The purpose of an abstract is to communicate the content of your report in just a few sentences. Sum up the entirety of your lab report---what you were studying, how you went about it and what you concluded---in about 200 words. It's sometimes easiest to do this after you've completed the entire report, but be sure to leave space for it below the title if you do this.
- 3). Write an introduction. Outline the specific problem addressed by your experiments and the reason for the investigation, briefly review the relevant previous research on the topic, and explain the hypothesis and experimental design you used for your research.
- 4). Label the next section of your paper "Methods and Materials." Use this section to explain what equipment you used to conduct an experiment and the methods you followed to conduct it. It's easy to get bogged down in the details for this section. To avoid getting too wordy, try to write the section as though it is going to be read by another scientist with your same knowledge base and educational background.
- 5). Title the next section "Results." This is the most important section of your report and should take up the most space---depending on how complex your experiment is, you may need several pages to accurately describe your results. Your Results section will include several tables describing the experiment. (A table for biochemical results in a lab to identify an unknown substance might include columns for Purpose, Reagent, Observations and Results.) Provide analysis for the data in each of the tables---don't expect the reader to let them speak for themselves.
- 6). Use "Discussion" or "Conclusion" as the title for your next section. Write about the results of the experiment and any conclusions it led to or questions that it raised. You can even speculate about the implications of the experiment or suggest further experimentation based on your results.
- 7). Title the final section "References," and include citations for all the other studies, research, essays and other work you referenced in your lab report. Use APA style.