ENG2093 Lab Report 1 & 2 Assessment Brief
Spring 2022
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Laboratory Reports
This document is a guide on general report writing skills and aims to help you structure your lab
reports. Examples of specific sections are provided to help you apply the ideas.
In addition to this document, you will also find a document detailing the marking scheme as well as a
template for your report.
Academic Integrity
Laboratory reports are expected to be your own work. Anything that you submit should be your
creation or referenced to inform reader of the source you used – see referencing section at the end.
By submitting via SurreyLearn you also confirm a declaration of originality as displayed when
submitting.
There are some items, which will be shared across a group of students, such as experimental data
collected as a group and graphs that are only issued to you as images. You are expected to process
and plot the experimental data individually.
Report Format
Laboratory reports are to be treated as formal technical documents, and should be word-processed
and include computer-generated figures, especially graphs. You, as the writer, should assume that
the reader has some knowledge of the subject area, but is unfamiliar with the particular details of
the work you have done.
Reports are written in PASSIVE voice.
When writing your report, you should use the past tense for what was done and the results that
were obtained for the experiment, and use the present tense when referring to laws of motions,
laws of thermodynamics, etc., which are always regarded as true.
Correct: A parameter often involved in the analysis of the motion of a solid body is the
second moment of mass (moment of inertia), I with units kg·m. It has the same
significance in angular motion as the mass of the body has in linear motion.
Incorrect: A parameter involved in the analysis of the motion of a solid body was the second
moment of mass (moment of inertia), I with units kg·m. It had the same
significance in angular motion as the mass of the body had in linear motion.
Title Page
Must contain the following:
• Report Title
• Your name
• Laboratory demonstrator for the experiment
• The date the laboratory work was completed
• Date the report was completed
ENG2093 Lab Report 1 & 2 Assessment Brief
Spring 2022
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Abstract
An abstract summarizes the key ideas and results from the work completed. It should be short; no
more than a few sentences in length from which a reader can determine the most important ideas
about the experiment – the objective, general procedure, the result and an overall conclusion that
can be drawn from the result. It is often best to write this section last using material from the body
of the report.
Contents
This should contain a numbered list of sections and appendices, thus telling the reader the structure
of the report and where to find what, at a glance.
1. Introduction
Describe the purpose and goals of the experiment, along with a brief background into the subject.
The background should be clearly and concisely described without too much detail. Justify the
experiment – what is unknown? Why is it important? Give the objectives of the experiment.
2. Theory
If it is necessary to introduce a substantial amount of background theory and equations, include
them in this section. Use text book references to avoid copying big chunks of well-known theory.
3. Procedures and Equipment
This section should include a thorough, but concise explanation of what you used and what you did.
The reader should be able to recreate every aspect of your experiment, but not necessarily with
identical equipment. Nonetheless, mention all the equipment involved in the experiment and
where applicable, include model numbers, technical specifications, ranges, etc. Photographs or
diagrams of key items can be included here. It is important to include all the equations that you
used to process the data, but their derivation should generally not be given (instead, you can
typically point the reader to an appropriate reference for derivations).
This section is not intended as a manual, rather it should provide all relevant information needed to
reproduce the data. Do not just copy the procedures section in the eLearning objects, and do not
write them as a set of instructions – this should be a record of what was done.
Correct: The pivot bar was placed in the first hole of the steel bar and the distance
between the centre of the pivot point and the centre of mass of the bar was
measured and recorded.
Incorrect: 1. Place the pivot bar in the first hole of the steel bar.
2. Measure and record the distance between the centre of the pivot point and
the centre of mass of the bar.
4. Results
This section should simply present the output of the experiment, calculated from the
instrumentation readings (via calibration factors or formulae), i.e. in engineering units and not the
instrumentation readings themselves. If you have used equations or formulae that are not included
in previous sections, you may include them here of you have not already stated them in the
previous section. Do not repeat equations already included, but refer back to their equation
numbers.
ENG2093 Lab Report 1 & 2 Assessment Brief
Spring 2022
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Correct: Using Equations 4 and 5 and values for ! and !"# from Table 1, experimental
values for ! and # were found to be 0.119m and 0.072m.
Graphs and tables of data should be included here, always including the uncertainty of these results
(error bars, percentage error, etc.). Each table and figure needs to be introduced to the reader, and
it must have a caption. If you have not mentioned the table or figure in the text, then it is not
worth including in the report.
Correct: A plot of T versus h in Figure 4 indicated a polynomial relationship of degree 2
with a minimum observed between holes 5 and 10 (or 287.2mm and 192.2mm
from the centre of mass).
5. Discussion
As a follow up to the previous section, you should now interpret the results here. What is the
significance of the results, and why should the reader care about them? Whenever possible, refer
to previous work done by others, either to validate your results or explain why they are unreliable.
You should mention the uncertainties/errors included in the results section and explain why they
are or are not significant.
Problems with the experimental method can also be discussed, but remember that it is usually the
case that ‘better’ equipment could have been used, or more time could have been spent collecting
more results, so unless you have a specific improvement to the method, it is not always worth
mentioning this in the report.
The important point of this section is: what useful information/conclusions can be drawn from the
experiments that were actually carried out?
6. Conclusions
This is essentially a brief and concise summary of the report. This section should contain the main
points that you wish to pass on to the reader which relate the results of the experiment to the
objectives of the experiment mentioned in the introduction. You should not include any ideas here
that you have not discussed in a previous section, so there will be some repetition of points already
stated.
References
Use the Harvard style of referencing, as you have been taught previously. You will be required to
have at least 2 quality-controlled sources (e.g. textbook or peer-reviewed journal article) in your
report, and the citation should be specific about what information you have taken from the
reference. The most common places to have references will be the introduction and discussion
sections, but this is entirely dependent on which sources you have chosen. Please also be aware
that Wikipedia is not considered to be a quality-controlled reference.
Appendix/Appendices
The inclusion of appendices is entirely up to you, the writer. However, typical appendices are
‘Original/Raw Data’, ‘Sample Calculations’, theoretical proofs, and lengthy or detailed descriptions of
equipment. Appendices typically contain information which would interrupt the flow of a report.
Do not include any information in the appendices that has not been referred to in the main body of
ENG2093 Lab Report 1 & 2 Assessment Brief
Spring 2022
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the report. The reader should be able to look at each appendix and know exactly why it is included
and which section of the report it is related to.
Equation, Figure, and Table Formatting
• Equations should always be numbered. If you refer to a variable within the text, it should be
italicized to emphasize it is not normal text. All variables used in equations should be
described in paragraph form.
Correct: The radius of gyration about the pivot axis, $ is related to the radius of gyration
about the centre of mass, % and h by:
$& = %& + ℎ& (2)

Incorrect: It can be shown that k0 is related to kg and h, $& = %& + ℎ&.

• Always include numbers and captions for tables and figures. The caption should briefly
describe what is included in the figure/table. Figure captions should be placed below the
figure, and table captions should be placed above the table.
• When presenting data in a graph, data points should be represented as just that, points. Do
not use any built-in functions to smooth the data. If you include a line or curve in the graph, it
should be to help explain the data trends (ie linear, exponential), or compare it with
previously published data. If more than one data set is included in the same figure, use
different markers and include a legend/key.
• Error bars should be included in graphs whenever possible, and should be justified and
explained within the report.
• Tables should include uncertainties whenever possible, always including units where
applicable.