Report Structure

A well-structured lab report can help you to clearly communicate your ideas. Here are some good sections to have in your report:

• Introduction: Explain your topic and why it is important to astronomy. Then discuss your goals in observing your object and give a brief summary of how you analyzed your data.
• Observations and Analysis: Explain in detail what observations you made and why. Describe how you performed your analysis and calculations. Be sure to include all the details so that another scientist could duplicate your work (pictures, pixel values, graphs, data tables, etc).
• Results: Summarize your main results and compare your results to known values. Explain any sources of error and quantify how much the results differ from the known values.
• Discussion: Explain what you learned from your observations and put your results into the context of why what you learned in important to astronomy.
• References: Any information you get from books, the internet, or any other source other than your own logical conclusions from data must be properly referenced in your report. This is the only way that someone can verify what you are saying, which is why plagiarism is treated so harshly in the academic world. It is best to write in the text which information came from what source (footnotes or a numbering system works well), in addition to listing them at the end of the report.

Report Length/Requirements

There is no minimum or maximum for the number of pages or amount of writing, but in order to properly explain your topic and present your results your report should be roughly five pages, double spaced (not including figures and tables). Your instructor may give you other requirements for your paper.

Helpful Hints

• Use proper grammar, punctuation and spelling. When proofreading your paper, there is no substitute for actually reading it!
• The tone of your writing should be like that of a scientific publication. Use precise language, and avoid colloquial expressions or slang.
• Each graph, image or table you include in your report should be referred to and explained in the text. You should also give each figure and number and a short descriptive caption.
• When you present an equation make sure you clearly explain what the equation is for and what each symbol in the equation represents.
• Always include the units with your values!

Sample Research Report

This sample research report presents a group of student's investigation into the properties of two galaxies. Images associated with this report are shown below. This paper is an example of extremely diligent work and would receive a very high grade.