Chase Stodden

Professor Arnold
UWRT 1101-073
10/14/2015
Found Genre: Formal Lab Reports
Formal lab reports are to be done when an experiment is performed
and the data gathered is needed to be presented and discussed in a formal
matter. The reports are extremely meticulous and are asked to be done in
different ways depending on who is asking for it. Main issues of a formal lab
report are that it must have correct formatting, must be in passive voice, and
must be written as if for an audience that has no prior knowledge on the
subject.
Formatting of the report is important because that is a quick and easy
way to determine if it was done correctly or not. Since a format is set in the
rubric for the report, the layout of everyones lab report should look almost
identical. The formatting can include from certain margin widths to having
headlines to introduce what is to be talked about like introduction, procedure,
results, discussion, and conclusion. Writing for an audience that has no prior
knowledge truly tests the writer to see if they really know what they are
talking about and if they know the significance of what was preformed in the
experiment. Its easy to follow steps and instructions to do something, but
knowing what was done and why it was done in a certain way is much more
difficult to explain.

One of the most important guidelines in writing a formal lab report is

that it must be in passive voice. An example of passive voice is The
solution was poured into a 100 mL beaker instead of saying I poured the
solution into a 100 mL beaker. The reasoning in writing in passive voice, I
believe, is that it almost purveys the idea that it was not perfectly with no
human errors.