Some Specific Guidelines for the Sunscreen Analysis lab report:

1. You will need to include all sections in this report (although, as always, you may simply reference the lab manual rather than write out the entire procedure if you followed exactly the instructions in the manual).  See the CH 221 Lab Manual for the list of sections that are required in a lab report.

2. In the Theory section you should discuss Beer's Law: what does it mean,  how does its formula dictate the type of graph you made (i.e., why did you plot concentration vs absorbance), etc.

3. Present your data in table form whenever possible.  Your goal is to make it clear to the reader what data you have collected.  We are purposely being a bit vague here because I want you to think about what needs to be reported to the reader and how best to do it.  In the calculations section also your goal is to make it clear to the reader what you have done and why.  This will probably require some narrative in addition to strings of calculations.  Be sure to include not only your results but also the compilation of the class results.

4. Be sure to include your Beer's law plot in the Results section.

5.  In the Error Analysis section you need to discuss your Beer's Law plot and how it either does or does not look as expected.  If it doesn't look like you expect try to offer reasons why (i.e. what problems might have occurred to cause the results to be odd).

5. No Personal Pronouns (e.g., I stirred the solution for 15 minutes is an invalid statement for proper scientific writing. The solution was stirred for 15 minutes is a more suitable statement. Please check your grammar and spelling before handing in your lab.

7. Do not copy directly from the lab manual or other sources.  Rearranging just a few words does not count as your own work.  You need to really take the information and put it in your own words.

Length of sections:  Here is a general guide to the length of some sections.  Please DO NOT work on the assumption that more is better.  Concise writing is a very important skill, although not an easy one to develop. 

Abstract - 1 paragraph, and not a very long one.  It shouldn't take more than a few sentences to sum up your results.  Other than the statement of purpose there shouldn't be anything in this section that is not also found elsewhere in your report.  It is a summary of your results.

Theory - In general 1 to 2 paragraphs.  For this particular report 1 paragraph should be sufficient.

Conclusion - 1 paragraph, and it will be very similar to the abstract.