An dieser Stelle geben wir ein paar grundlegende Hinweise fuer das Schreiben von Praktikumsberichten. Die Hinweise sind allgemein gehalten und geben und Grundgeruest fuer das Verfassen von Berichten. Viele der Hinweise sind analog zu den Allgemeinen Kriterien fuer das verfassen von wissenschaftlichen Text wie z.B. Bachelor- und Masterarbeiten oder auch wissenschaftliche Publikationen.

Allgemeine Hinweise

Ein wissenschaftlicher Text hat generell 2 wichtige Funktionen:

1. Praesentation deiner Resultate und Schlussfolgerungen. Dies ist die fundametale Botschaft, die du den Lesern mitgeben willst, all die wichtigen (neuen) Informationen und Ideen.
2. Transparenz und Reproduzierbarkeit der Resultate. Wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse haben nur dann einen Wert wenn sie reproduzierbar sind. Schreibe einen Text so, dass es fuer andere moeglich ist, deine Schritte nachzuvollziehen und mit deinen Daten deine Ergebnisse zu reproduzieren. Das unterstuetzt die Glaubwuerdigkeit und Ueberzeugungskraft deiner Ergebnisse. In einem Praktikumsbericht ist es fuer uns auch wichtig um zu sehen wie gut du dich mit Thema des Berichts auskennst und die Details verstanden hast.

Struktur und Inhalt eine Praktikumsberichts

A typical report should consist of the following sections:

1. A short introduction, setting the general stage of the report.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. The presentation and description of the results. This includes the processed data and measured values.
5. An analysis of the results which include calculations, deductions, interpretations, or fitting results based on the data.
6. A discussion of the results of the analysis with respect to literature values, plausibility, uncertainties, and possible error sources
7. 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.
8. An *appendix that contains all supplementary information, additional figures, etc.

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.

More remarks

• 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?
• 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 here (many thanks to Tomer Shenar and Christoph Guber for providing this file).

OLD BELOW

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.

A typical report should consist of the following sections:

1. a theoretical part that explains the background need to understand the topic of the report
2. a general description of the observation, the data reduction, and the data analysis
3. the presentation of the results
4. a discussion of the results with respect to literature values, plausibility, uncertainties, and possible error sources
5. a reference list

Some general remarks:

• 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.
• 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

An example for a good, although not perfect, N2 report can be found here (many thanks to Tomer Shenar and Christoph Guber for providing this file).