Some Suggestions for Report #1:

This is by no means a comprehensive list of the information that you need to include in
your report. Rather it is just expanding on the material that is presented in your lab manual
in Appendix I. This is meant to fill in some of the gaps in what may be for some your first
attempt at report writing. Please read the information over carefully both in this hand-out
and also in your lab manual. As mentioned, this is just a generalized guide for some of the
more important points of the report. Do not just stick to this hand-out, but rather come up
with ideas of your own to fill out the report.

Title page
This page includes a descriptive title that captures the theme of the experiments you
have done. Keep in mind that this report consists of a contiguous theme of elements that
are inclusive of content for Experiments #4, 5, 6.

Include your name, student ID number, and name(s) of your lab partner(s) if applicable.
You should also include Teaching Assistants’ names, the course number and the date
range over which the experiments were performed.

Introduction
The purpose of this section is to supply concise and relevant background information
that will permit the reader to understand the results of your experiments. You need to
cover the purpose and context of the experiments, the methods used, and introduce
key definitions and principles briefly.

 The introduction should include clear, concise, accurate and well-organized

coverage of the experiments or modules that were completed. It should include
important concepts and any unique methods. These should be introduced in a
flow that links all the experimental components nicely.

 There should be no headings in the introduction, nor should it be choppy. The

introduction will include the three experiments pertaining to various staining
techniques that are commonly employed in Microbiology. Writing this report will
give you a chance to learn more about the principles involved in some basic
staining procedures and how to apply and interpret them correctly.

 The introduction should tell the reader what you did (in the past tense), why you
did it and how you went about accomplishing this. Provide the reader with a
general overall big picture; this is not the place to include very specific details.
For example this would be the section where you give the reader background
information pertaining to the staining techniques used as they relate to the
purpose of the lab, but it would not be appropriate to have a detailed account of
every step (i.e. step 1 make a smear).

 There should be a generalized integrated introduction to the principles of staining

methods (try to find how these techniques are linked) and a brief but general
 introduction to the principle of the stain as it relates to the physiological
characteristics of the microorganisms you examined in the lab. Since all of the
experiments are technical in nature, this report is really a comparison of the
various techniques used for staining bacteria, how they work, and principles
behind them.

 When writing this section, briefly introduce the various microorganisms for each
experiment and why they were chosen

 Do not include vague verbose statements or information which is not relevant to

the module topics; this will dilute your effort to put all the necessary pieces
together in a well-organized flow. The introduction is also not the place to include
results or discussion of results.

Be careful that you do not do a comprehensive literature search on all facets of staining in
the Introduction. This would not be appropriate. Remember the purpose of the Introduction
is to supply the reader with adequate background information to appreciate the results and
discussion (so it should only include relevant information pertaining to the lab that you did).

 Introduction should be no more than two double-spaced typed pages (approximately).

Materials and Methods

An exhaustive Materials and Methods is not required. Instead, your lab manual is
correctly referenced (Experiment, Title and pages) and this section should list any
alterations that have been made for each experiment. You should not include details
such as the materials used for each experiment.

You must include sections such as “please refer to Department of Biology, 2019, Biology
240 Fundamentals of Microbiology Laboratory Manual, Experiment X: Title, pp. XX-XX
Experiment Y: Title, pp. XX-XX, etc.

The following are exceptions to the protocols as described in the manual:

 Exception 1 Mycobacterium phlei was replaced with Mycobacterium
tuberculosis
 Exception 2 we used nutrient agar instead of nutrient broth etc.

Remember you must complete the cited reference in the Reference section as above as
one of your references.

Results
The results section should be well organized using tables, graphs, figures or statements
in correct format. All of your results must be presented in an organized and logical way
to the reader.
In any results section it is best to use tables and figures wherever. Tables should be
numbered consecutively and titled (title shown above the table). Figures should be
numbered consecutively and titled (legend below the figure). Label the axes of graphs
so that the dependent variable (that which is measured) is on the vertical axis, and the
independent variable (that which is known) is on the horizontal axis.

The majority of your results for this report will be figures and these should be properly
labeled with descriptive titles. The TA’s will be looking for well drawn, accurate figures
which reasonably represent what you saw under the microscope. Marks will be awarded
for the quality of your drawings. Figures should always include magnification.

Always include descriptive text to report data that cannot be presented in a figure or
table, and to link and explain the various figures and tables. Such text contains
references to the tables and figures, but does not repeat the information they contain, or
attempt to interpret that information. Examples of linker text:

When discussing figures you will need to verbally communicate what the reader is
observing since labels are not used. So a typical linker text under a figure may say “E.
coli in the figure is a small rod and stained red which would indicate it is Gram-negative”

Or “in the above figure of Bacillus megaterium notice the large central spore which
stained green while the vegetative cell stained red.

“Table 3 summarizes the zones of inhibition (in mm) observed for the various listed
antibiotics tested against the indicated organisms”.

“Characteristic fields of view are depicted as observed for pond water samples viewed
under phase contrast microscopy (Figure 3, Figure 4)”.

Linker text should lead the reader through your Results. The point of it is to give some
organization/direction to this section which might otherwise seem very haphazard and
random (table here, figure there) without verbalization.
Note that all figures and tables must be mentioned in this linker text in the order that
they appear.

Include any raw data and a sample calculation where applicable. A sample calculation
should be shown for each type of calculation presented (but it is not necessary to show
every calculation conducted!). All sample calculations and raw data should be placed in
a separate section titled Appendix  at the end of the report with the results section
containing only final calculated data.

Discussion:
This is the interpretive section of the report. It is a presentation of the principles,
relationships and generalizations shown by the results. This is not a recapitulation of the
results section, and not a regurgitation of information from the literature. The
experimental results obtained should be compared to expected values wherever
applicable, or a class average (if available). Don’t forget to consider the use and value of
controls. Always try to relate the results back to principles given in the Introduction.
When would it be appropriate to use this staining technique and when would it not be
useful? Finally did you expect to see under the microscope if you were successful
(interpretation of the results based on literature)? In each case try to explain why the
microorganisms were used for each experiment and did the results match with what you
know about their physiological characteristics. What do these staining techniques have
in common and how do they differ? This may be an appropriate place to briefly discuss
errors in technique, problems encountered in the lab. End with brief and clear
conclusions for all experiments conducted.

Note: There may be more than one conclusion from each session of the lab.

A few other points:

 Your discussion should be an in depth interpretation of your results and not a

reiteration of them. You should be able to use referenced material to discuss the
theory or mechanism of what you saw and WHY you saw it. In other words, you
should always try to indicate or state why the results came out this way. This will
require some investigation on your part. Give the reader an interpretation of the
results and if they were correct given properties of the bacteria and the staining
technique used. So do your results correlate to expected literature results for the
bacteria

 You should be able to do a literature search and use referenced information to

support your finding. Citations should be given in journal format.

 If your results deviate from the expected norm (or what you would have predicted
from literature or group results), then a discussion as to why this may have
happened should be given.

 Always be aware of the design of the experiment such as the use of controls
(both positive and negative if they exist). What is the purpose of the controls and
did they show what they should have shown? They should always be included in
your understanding of the mechanism or theory.

 All the experiments in this course are tightly linked. You should have seen a
common thread and made connections between material when applicable.
Highlighting the integration of the experiments helps give a big picture to the
discussion of your results and thus this section should not only discuss each
experiment in isolation.

 There should be a discussion of why the microorganisms were chosen in each

case and did your findings correlate with researched literature in the field for the
same bacteria and stain (you will need to confirm this yourself).
  Discuss any advantages or disadvantages that pertain to the various techniques

 It might be prudent to include a brief discussion on the usefulness of these

techniques and how they have impacted on the field of microbiology in terms of
identification and classification.

 Your report should finish with an overall summing up statement (paragraph or

sentence) which will summarize your thoughts.

Extra points to consider in your discussion:

As an example, to start the discussion you may want to think about the
following steps:
1. State your result.
Each time you state your results for each experiment you should think about what you
observed.
2. Research an expected result from a GOOD source.
3. Does your result correlate?
4. If it does, what does that tell you? (this is where you can go into depth and discuss
what the result means – this is the most important part in the discussion grading and
in the learning process).
5. If the result does not correlate, why not? What went wrong? Think about the protocol
and where you might have gone wrong. This is another good reason to keep a
detailed account of what you ACTUALLY did while you were in lab. When things don’t
work out, you can go back and figure out why.

Always remember to discuss each of the factors above in the context of the lab and your
specific results.

Remember that most of the time an experiment will not be perfectly streamlined and
conducted in isolation (e.g. I did this, saw that, and it means this). It is often necessary
to make connections between your results and even between different experiments.

References
In the body of your text you must ‘source’ material if the information is not your own idea
or is obtained from other people’s work. You CANNOT reference the lab manual as a
source. The reference list should match your citations in the text. The format that is
required for referencing in this lab report is that used in the Canadian Journal of
Microbiology. This journal is available in the journals section (bottom floor) of the Davis
library (Davis, PER QR1 C25) and is also available online.

For references, use reputable sources. Don’t use Wikipedia as a reference! You can
start at Wikipedia, but look up the actual references for the material there and read it
firsthand. Why would you want to use someone’s interpretation of someone else’s work
when you could read the primary research paper yourself?

Some examples of how to reference in the text itself (à la Can. J. Microbiol.)

One author
Surname and year, all in parentheses. e.g. (Bret, 1952)

Two authors
Surnames and year, all in parentheses e.g. (Watson and Crick 1953)

Three or more authors

First surname, then ‘et al.’, then year, all in parentheses. e.g. (Keddie et al. 1966)

Some examples of how to prepare a reference list (à la Can. J. Microbiol.)

Note the following examples included here for convenience:
Atlas, R.M. 1988. Microbiology: Fundamentals and Applications, 2 nd Ed. Macmillan
Publishing, Inc. New York. pp. 87-111.

Conn, E.E., and Butler, G. W. 1997. The Biosynthesis of cyanogenic glucosides and
other simple nitrogen compounds. In Perspectives in Phytochemistry. Edited by J. B.
Harborne and T. Swain. Academic Press, London. pp. 47-74.

Loveley, D. R., and Philips, E. J. P. 1986. Organic matter mineralization with reduction of
ferric iron in anaerobic sediments. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 51: 683-689.

In the References section, you should alphabetically list the authors that you have cited in
the text, with all the other attendant information included in the manual on referencing. You
must follow the format of the references given as examples. Do not use your lecture
notes as reference material - ask the Professor where he acquired the information.
Make sure you do not have extra references in the Reference section that were not cited in
the body of the text; conversely, ensure that you have not forgotten to put in the Reference
section authors you cited in the body.

** - You must realize that correct spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc. are part of
being able to communicate properly, and will be penalized if incorrectly used. Also
this includes the proper use of genus and species names (Escherichia coli).

Note: Plagiarism, the direct copying of text or data without attribution to the source is an
academic offense. This also applies to websites. If you are not sure what constitutes
plagiarism then please contact your TA’s for help. And never, ever, copy/paste
from other sources. If any plagiarism is detected in your report, the report
will receive a grade of zero and a letter will be placed in your university file.

Reports are due at the beginning of the lab period the week of Sep 30th. There is a late
penalty of 5% per day to a maximum time of 3 days (the weekend is treated as two
days). Reports are to be handed into the demonstrators at the beginning of the lab in
hard copy. If they are not handed in at the beginning of the lab then they will be 5% late (no
excuses!). You will have till 2:30 the next day (both afternoon and evening) to hand in the
report to your TA’s or Dr. Duxbury at which point it will be another 5%. NO electronic
copies NO time dating!

Reference material should be plentiful. You must have a minimum of 4 key or principal
(text of journal references) and a maximum of 2 websites (These are NOT considered
KEY, so they are up and beyond the 4 above and only reputable websites will be
allowed). The manual that you reference for M&M does NOT count as one of your 4 key
references above!

The questions that are on the LEARN site should be answered in a separate section at
the back of your report under a distinctive heading that will let the TA’s know these are
the study questions. They should be numbered consecutively and not integrated into the
body of your report. You may find that you reiterate some of the material in your
Discussion section in the answers to your questions If you have already answered the
question in the discussion that is alright but you MUST re-write it again in this section
Don’t just say (see discussion) and make the TA look for it. They won’t and you will lose
marks unnecessarily! The study questions MUST be referenced if they are not
common knowledge or you had to look up the information from a source.

What I have included above is NOT sufficient for a good lab report, but rather a guideline
for some of the more relevant material to include. Your report should be a mixture of what I
have included above combined with your own ideas and researched material.

Turn it in

Students will need to submit their final draft SEPARATELY to the FINAL
DRAFT dropbox. Submitting to the DRAFT DROPBOX DOES NOT mean
you have handed in the assignment – ONLY reports in the Final
Submission dropbox will be considered as “handed in” to meet report
deadlines for Turnitin. The final copy of your report MUST be handed in
to the dropbox before your lab period and prior to submission of the
paper version in your lab period. Failure to complete the assignment by
submitting to both the final dropbox on LEARN and a paper version in
your lab period will results in the assignment being considered
incomplete and the 5%/day penalty will begin until either or both are
done. If after 3 days either of these two components is still missing
then the assignment will not be considered for marking.

Again, ultimately students are REQUIRED to hand in a printed copy to

the TAs in their regularly scheduled lab on the due date