How to Write a Scientific Report

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Sooner or later, every student has to write a scientific report. This task seems too difficult for some, and they turn to professionals, such as GPALabs, for help. However, any student can cope with this assignment independently. Today we will tell you how to do a scientific report on your own.

What is a scientific report?

A scientific report is a type of independent research work where the author reveals the essence of the problem under study and performs certain actions to prove or repulse the hypothesis. The author expresses their own views on it and presents their discoveries and results of work. 

Basic elements of a scientific report

As a rule, a scientific report consists of the following components:

• Title — It should provide the reader with a general idea of what the paper is about. It should explain what you are discovering or investigating in your work. Basically, you should come up with a title that you yourself would search on Google if you had to find your work. The title should be up to 10 words long.
• Aim — Every scientific experiment or research work has some goal behind it. In this section, you explain in one sentence the main objective of your scientific report.
• Hypothesis — We have some expectations about our work, and this is what the hypothesis is about. It is an educated assumption of what will happen as a result of our experiment.
• Materials — In this section, you describe the materials (either theoretical or real objects depending on your research). If this is an experiment on biology or chemistry, you have to be precise with describing the materials you have used in your investigation. Thus, you must state the exact size of beakers, test mixers, weights, etc. You must specify all the ingredients and their exact amount of weight.
• Procedure — It's time to offer a step-by-step description of performing your experiment. The idea is that anyone should be able to duplicate your experiment without having done it before with the help of your instructions.
• Results — You can present your results either in a qualitative (descriptive) or quantitative (offering numbers which explain the results) way. In the latter, you can use diagrams and tables.
• Discussion — You discuss the results of your experiments with what you have studied. You can reflect on what could have affected or altered your results. You may also offer some ways to improve the experiment in the future.
• Conclusion — You have to paraphrase the aim and hypothesis of your scientific report and explain if you have managed to achieve it or not. You have to explain why it has happened so. You can relate your findings to the real world and review how they can be useful.
• Reference list — It's time to mention the materials and sources you have used in your scientific report. And don't forget about citing them in your paper.

Guidelines

As a rule, each institution or publisher has its own rules regarding the layout and content of a research paper. You must follow these rules, or you risk losing grades or not getting permission to publish.

Tips on writing a scientific report

• Take the audience's opinions into account. The style of narration and the terms used can either attract or repel readers. Scholars in a particular field have an appropriate style, an appropriate language, but a popular magazine might have a different style.
• The presentation of the article material. It is necessary to represent the interests of your future reader, to know to whom your work will be addressed. The author must write about what is unknown to others so that it becomes clear to the reader, as well as to themselves. It should explain to the reader the most obscure places. If the article is a development of already known works, do not make it difficult for the reader to retell, but refer them to the primary sources. The text can be divided into separate headings, which will facilitate the reader to find the necessary material. However, they should not be too small.
• Terminology. The author must strive to be understood unambiguously. To do this, they must follow simple rules:
• use unambiguous terms;
• do not use a word that has two meanings without determining which one it will be applied to;
• do not use one word in two meanings and do not use different words in one meaning.
• Language of presentation. A scientific article should be written in lively, figurative language, which always distinguishes scientific papers from others.

We hope that our article has helped you to understand the main components of the scientific report, and our tips will help you to write it without resorting to outside help. Good luck with your research, and we wish you scientific success!