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| ===== How to write a lab course report ===== | ====== How to Write a Lab Report ====== |
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| Here we give a few advises regarding the writing of a report within the scope of the astrophysical lab course. We aim to give an overview over what should be included in those reports and which guidelines need to be followed. Those largely are similar to the requirements of future scientific writings like theses and journal papers. | Here we provide some basic guidelines for writing lab reports. The guidelines are kept general and offer a framework for writing reports. Many of them are analogous to the general criteria for writing scientific texts, such as Bachelor's and Master's theses or scientific publications. |
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| **General Notes** | ===== General Guidelines ===== |
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| A scientific text has two important purposes: | A scientific text generally serves two important functions: |
| - //Presentation of your results, findings, and conclusions.// This is the fundamental message that you want to convey, you describe and show all of your findings. This is the part that contains what others should learn from your work. | - **Presentation of results and conclusions.** This is the fundamental message you want to convey to the readers. All the important (new) information and ideas need to be included. |
| - //Transparency and reproducibility of the results.// This includes a clear and precise description of the process you obtained your results with. Write under the assumption that a potential reader should be able to reproduce your results from your data while following your steps. This gives credibility to your results. For a lab report, it allows us to identify potential problems that occurred throughout the process and see how well you understood the work you did. | - **Transparency and reproducibility of results.** Scientific findings only have value if they are reproducible. Write your text in a way that allows others to follow your steps and reproduce your results using your data. This strengthens the credibility and persuasiveness of your findings. In the context of a lab report, this is also important for us to assess how well you have engaged with the topic and understood the details. |
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| | //These two points are of particular importance in the evaluation of the lab report.// |
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| **Report structure and content** | ===== Structure and Content of a Lab Report ===== |
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| A typical report should consist of the following sections: | A typical lab report is divided into the following sections: |
| - A short **introduction**, setting the general stage of the report. | - A brief **introduction** that leads into the topic (**can be kept very short in the age of AI**). |
| - A **theoretical part** that explains the knowledge needed to understand the topic of the report, the processing of the data, and the conclusions drawn in the end. | - A section on the **theoretical background**, laying out all the scientific foundations needed to understand the results and conclusions and to follow their derivation (**can be kept very short in the age of AI**). |
| - A general description of the **observations**, the **data reduction** that lay out the path from the original raw data to the results presented in the next section. | - A general description of the **observational data**, often together with the **data reduction**, describing how the raw data are processed into reduced data products. The acquisition of the raw data is also described here. |
| - The presentation and description of the **results**. This includes the processed data and measured values. | - A presentation of the **results**, including the final data products and direct measurements from the data. |
| - An **analysis** of the results which include calculations, deductions, interpretations, or fitting results based on the data. | - The **data analysis** covers all quantities derived from the results. This includes more extensive calculations based on models and assumptions, as well as derivations of broader relationships and model comparisons. |
| - A **discussion** of the results of the analysis with respect to literature values, plausibility, uncertainties, and possible error sources | - The **discussion** places the results of the analysis and measurements in a scientific context. The results are examined with regard to their plausibility and possible measurement uncertainties. Potential sources of error are addressed, as well as a comparison with similar experiments from the literature. |
| - A list of **references** used throughout the report. This includes values for literature comparisons but also adopted literature values for the results and analysis part. The same goes for figures that you use from books or webpages. | - A **references** section lists all literature sources used in the course of writing the report, including sources for adapted figures as well as literature values used for assumptions and comparisons. |
| - An ***appendix** that contains all supplementary information, additional figures, etc. | - An **appendix** contains any additional information and figures that are too important to omit but would disrupt the flow of the main text too much. |
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| This is just a general structure, valid for most writings. Given the content of the report, individual points can be merged or even omitted. Also the order may change in specific cases when the content demands/merits it. | This is a general overview applicable to most types of scientific texts. Depending on the content or context of the report, however, deviations from this structure may be useful or even necessary to improve readability. |
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| **More remarks** | ===== Further Advice ===== |
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| * It can be exhausting writing on a lengthy text over time. One gets blind for their own mistakes over time, things that made sense in your head may not when they are on paper. Leverage that you write this as a group, proof read each others contributions. Also, put the text to rest for one or two days and reread it to identify problems with the structure or wording, and find repetitions or gaps to be filled in the text. | /* |
| * When thinking about what to include in your report as information, act according to this principle: what does someone need to know to understand your findings and the way you reach there? Which information do they need to be able to retrace your steps with your data to reproduce your results? | * A report is a lengthy text and can be demanding to write. One often becomes blind to one's own mistakes or omissions. Make use of the fact that you are writing the report as a group and proofread each other's sections. It can also be helpful to set a written text aside for a day or two and then read it again with fresh eyes. This makes it much easier to spot spelling mistakes, missing words, repetitions, or gaps. |
| * Use your own words to describe things. Please be aware that the supervisors (which will evaluate your report) already read dozens of other reports. Hence, they will immediately recognize whether you have copied text from e.g. the Internet, which is considered to be a plagiarism and which will result in an immediate disqualification. | */ |
| * An example for a good, although not perfect, N2 report can be found {{en:labcourse:n2_shenar_guber.pdf|here}} (many thanks to Tomer Shenar and Christoph Guber for providing this file). | * When thinking about what to include in your report, follow this principle: What does a reader need in order to understand the results and conclusions? What is necessary for a reader to be able to reproduce your steps and, if applicable, understand any deviations from expectations? |
| | * Write in your own words. The lab course supervisors have read dozens of reports and will immediately notice if a text has been written entirely by an AI, for example. If a report is written exclusively by an AI or copied from another source without being clearly marked as such, this will be considered an attempt at plagiarism and will result in immediate disqualification. |
| | * An example of a good, though not perfect, lab report for N2 can be found {{en:labcourse:n2_shenar_guber.pdf|here}}. (With thanks to Tomer Shenar and Christoph Guber for providing the report.) |
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| /* **OLD BELOW** | ===== Lab Report Template ===== |
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| Here we give a few advises regarding the writing of a report within the scope of the astrophysical lab course. We aim to give an overview over what should be included in those reports and which guidelines need to be followed. | To support you, we have prepared a LaTeX template for a lab report. The template is written in LaTeX and should compile without issues using a standard LaTeX installation. A {{en:labcourse:reports:report_template.zip|zipped archive}} contains all necessary source files, including the template to be edited as well as additional files required for successful compilation. The archive contains the following files: |
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| A typical report should consist of the following sections: | ^ Filename ^ Purpose ^ To be edited by you? ^ |
| - a theoretical part that explains the background need to understand the topic of the report | | lab_report_empty.tex | The empty template for you to fill in | yes | |
| - a general description of the observation, the data reduction, and the data analysis | | bibliography.bib | Contains BibTeX entries for all cited sources | yes | |
| - the presentation of the results | | aa.bst | BibTeX style file determining the appearance of references | no | |
| - a discussion of the results with respect to literature values, plausibility, uncertainties, and possible error sources | | lab_report.tex | Source file for the guide (see below) | no | |
| - a reference list | | bibdefinitions.tex | Predefined LaTeX commands for astronomical journals (used for BibTeX) | no | |
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| Some general remarks: | All other files are generated automatically during compilation. |
| * **first of all:** use your **own** words | |
| * Please be aware that the supervisors (which will evaluate your report) already read dozens of other reports. Hence, they will immediately recognize whether you have copied text from e.g. the Internet, which is considered to be a plagiarism and which will result in an immediate disqualification. | Based on this template, we have written a {{en:labcourse:reports:report_template.pdf|short guide}} that provides advice on how to write a lab report. It is somewhat more comprehensive than what is written here and additionally contains general instructions on typesetting, scientific writing, and a list of useful LaTeX commands. |
| * state the origin of each figure that is not made by yourself | |
| * the report should include the figures from the data reduction, however only one example of each type is needed in the main part of the report, additional figures should be attached as an appendix | |
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| An example for a good, although not perfect, N2 report can be found {{en:labcourse:n2_shenar_guber.pdf|here}} (many thanks to Tomer Shenar and Christoph Guber for providing this file).*/ | |