How long does each of your lab reports need to be? In my Jan 21 Announcement, I

How long does each of your lab reports need to be?
In my Jan 21 Announcement, I indicated that the minimum length for ISLE #1 is 6 pages, not counting a cover page at the beginning and reference page at the end.
However, when doing research, the answer to the question of how long the paper on the research should be is “it depends.”
Most researchers do not do their research with a target number of pages in mind for their research reports. For example, someone doing research on car brands and safety factors does not start out by saying I am going to write a 100-page report on this subject. Or, COVID researchers do not focus on writing a report of a given length. I do realize, however, that university students want to know about appropriate length of course papers, so some guidelines are needed.
Right now, you know that in my earlier Jan 21 Announcement on lab reports posted in D2L, I indicated that the first section of your lab report, Background and Purpose, should be 200 words at a minimum. “At a minimum” is not a target length for your Background and Purpose! Of course, you could write much more than 200 words, particularly if you have found some of the published literature on the subject to include in your Background and Purpose section.
But what is the “it depends” part? For more information about this, read on below.
Good observations and good descriptions:
Some of what you put in your lab report that will contribute to a varying length of a report is how good an observer you are and how well you can describe what you actually did and found out. I told you earlier that detailed descriptions are important. If someone becomes a professional researcher, factors such as observer/researcher biases may become important topics of discussion, particularly if someone spends years on a research project. But for the purposes of this course, you should work on observing carefully all aspects of what you are doing and describing well what you need to write about.
For example, someone could simply say:
“Use a pencil.”
Or, someone could give much more detail (and of course adding to the length of any lab report):
“The pencil used in this study was 6 inches long with a sharpened point on one end, and an eraser on the other. The pencil was round in shape and had a small company logo and printed company name embossed down the one side of the length of the pencil.” The person who writes this in the Method of a lab report may very well follow up in the Discussion part of the report. Something the student might bring up in the Discussion is whether the embossing down the length of the pencil may have given some cues to the people in the study, and if the demonstration was to be redone, a pencil without embossing could be used.
Looking backwards throughout your report:
A tip to writing a good lab report (that will obviously add to the length of the report) is always check back to the previous section or sections of your lab report to make sure there is continuity in what you are writing in each section of your report. For example, does your Method section accurately describe approaches that will clearly get you information related to your previously stated Purpose? How do your Results flow from your previous Method section? In your Discussion, can you relate your Results back to your original Purpose? Can you relate those results to what other writers/researchers have found on the subject? How? If not, why not? Add to your descriptions where you find the continuity in your report may not be obvious to a reader who knows nothing about your topic.
Absolute Minimum Length of a Lab Report:
An absolute minimum length of a lab report in this course should be 6 pages, not counting a cover page and a reference page. However, a report of this length may not show that the writer is a good describer and observer, and can integrate all sections of the report (Looking backwards throughout your report). But maybe that is possible—it depends!
Plagiarism and Turnitin:
As noted at the beginning of this course in the Course Syllabus, plagiarism is not allowed. Please keep this in mind as you continue to work on any of the written work for this course. You can head off plagiarism by writing about concepts in your own words, and if you absolutely must copy some material directly from the original source because you are not able to put the information in your own words, put quotation marks around the copied material and include the reference (author and year) and page number of your quote at the end of what you quoted. The complete reference citation (APA style) should be at the end of your written assignment. For your ISLE reports, that is on your References page.
Turnitin is automatically turned on in D2L Assessments/Assignments for your submitted Video Writing Assignments and ISLE Assignment Reports.
How long does each of your lab reports need to be?
In my Jan 21 Announcement, I indicated that the minimum length for ISLE #1 is 6 pages, not counting a cover page at the beginning and reference page at the end.
However, when doing research, the answer to the question of how long the paper on the research should be is “it depends.”
Most researchers do not do their research with a target number of pages in mind for their research reports. For example, someone doing research on car brands and safety factors does not start out by saying I am going to write a 100-page report on this subject. Or, COVID researchers do not focus on writing a report of a given length. I do realize, however, that university students want to know about appropriate length of course papers, so some guidelines are needed.
Right now, you know that in my earlier Jan 21 Announcement on lab reports posted in D2L, I indicated that the first section of your lab report, Background and Purpose, should be 200 words at a minimum. “At a minimum” is not a target length for your Background and Purpose! Of course, you could write much more than 200 words, particularly if you have found some of the published literature on the subject to include in your Background and Purpose section.
But what is the “it depends” part? For more information about this, read on below.
Good observations and good descriptions:
Some of what you put in your lab report that will contribute to a varying length of a report is how good an observer you are and how well you can describe what you actually did and found out. I told you earlier that detailed descriptions are important. If someone becomes a professional researcher, factors such as observer/researcher biases may become important topics of discussion, particularly if someone spends years on a research project. But for the purposes of this course, you should work on observing carefully all aspects of what you are doing and describing well what you need to write about.
For example, someone could simply say:
“Use a pencil.”
Or, someone could give much more detail (and of course adding to the length of any lab report):
“The pencil used in this study was 6 inches long with a sharpened point on one end, and an eraser on the other. The pencil was round in shape and had a small company logo and printed company name embossed down the one side of the length of the pencil.” The person who writes this in the Method of a lab report may very well follow up in the Discussion part of the report. Something the student might bring up in the Discussion is whether the embossing down the length of the pencil may have given some cues to the people in the study, and if the demonstration was to be redone, a pencil without embossing could be used.
Looking backwards throughout your report:
A tip to writing a good lab report (that will obviously add to the length of the report) is always check back to the previous section or sections of your lab report to make sure there is continuity in what you are writing in each section of your report. For example, does your Method section accurately describe approaches that will clearly get you information related to your previously stated Purpose? How do your Results flow from your previous Method section? In your Discussion, can you relate your Results back to your original Purpose? Can you relate those results to what other writers/researchers have found on the subject? How? If not, why not? Add to your descriptions where you find the continuity in your report may not be obvious to a reader who knows nothing about your topic.
Absolute Minimum Length of a Lab Report:
An absolute minimum length of a lab report in this course should be 6 pages, not counting a cover page and a reference page. However, a report of this length may not show that the writer is a good describer and observer, and can integrate all sections of the report (Looking backwards throughout your report). But maybe that is possible—it depends!
Plagiarism and Turnitin:
As noted at the beginning of this course in the Course Syllabus, plagiarism is not allowed. Please keep this in mind as you continue to work on any of the written work for this course. You can head off plagiarism by writing about concepts in your own words, and if you absolutely must copy some material directly from the original source because you are not able to put the information in your own words, put quotation marks around the copied material and include the reference (author and year) and page number of your quote at the end of what you quoted. The complete reference citation (APA style) should be at the end of your written assignment. For your ISLE reports, that is on your References page.
Turnitin is automatically turned on in D2L Assessments/Assignments for your submitted Video Writing Assignments and ISLE Assignment Reports.

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