Don't waste time, follow ABEL's easy tips to help you get top marks!

1. Write Clearly, Write Less

Scientists like to be doing things, not reading information they won’t use in their experiment. You are not writing an essay, a lab report only needs to contain the information relevant to what you will do, or did, in the lab. 

Make sure each sentence you write is important to know for this experiment. Imagine the person marking it: Could they give you a tick for every sentence you write? Are you telling the reader some important scientific facts that help them understand the experiment or the results? Or are YOU using the facts you found out to explain the results? Avoid writing "throw-away sentences".

2. Make sure your research is from trusted sources

As you know, you can’t believe everything you read online! Make sure you think about where you find your information online: Who has made this website? Why have they made the website? DO they want you to buy something? If so, beware! The information might be too simplified or even inaccurate. 

There is a huge amount of information out there, it’s hard to know what to include. Look at your Research title, does the information help you understand both the IV and DV? 

Don’t search Google for questions. As you must have a Research Question for a lab report, it can be tempting to Google that, but that will probably take you to a Question and Answer website where someone else has asked the same question. ANYONE can respond on these sites, and they may not be right. See our help with How to search effectively, or try these websites:

BBC Bitesize, Britannica, Kiddle. 

You can also use your textbook and your school library. These sources are 100% trusted by your teacher as they have been okayed for use by the school and librarian who are trusted professionals!

3. Don’t copy and paste!

We have all been stressed, in a rush, not sure our written English is good enough, or unable to think of a better way to say it, but we can’t copy and paste. It is unfair to the people who wrote it, and can get you in trouble. It is against every school’s academic honesty policy and is a bad habit to get into. It is often obvious to your teacher that you have copied and pasted sections, even if you have changed the font and style to match (which some students often forget!). If the style or level of English changes suddenly, then this is a big warning sign to the person who marks your work. 

As you get older, you may have to submit your work through a plagiarism checker like Turnitin, that checks all online sources and keeps on record all the student work that it has checked before. This means even changing a few bits of your older sibling’s lab reports from when they did the same experiment will be caught! Even without a service like Turnitin, your teacher can easily use Google to check suspicious sentences. 

Again, using a textbook or our library might seem a harder way to do your research, but if you bullet point the information and then write it out you will remember and understand it much more easily. And you can’t get accused of copying and pasting!

4. Keep track of where you found your information

Even if you do not need to include a reference list, it is a good idea to keep a list of where each bit of information comes from. It’s a great habit to get into for the future and you might need to add a bit more detail after receiving formative feedback. You can even help your friends out by sharing the sources with them. Sharing where you found your information is allowed. Talking to someone about what to include in your work, and what the things you have found out mean, is allowed. However, just copying each other’s writing is unfair and is not allowed.

If you do have to include a reference list at the end of your lab report, don’t put it off. Start it straight away and try to keep it as neat as possible. This can save you an incredible amount of time later. Believe me, I found out the hard way. I have literally spent as much time looking for references as I have writing some projects!

You can use Google Docs to insert references, keep an alphabetical list at the bottom of your document, or use a website like citethisforme. 

5. Have a final read-through before handing in

This is a very important stage that is often overlooked. It is impossible to finish a piece of work in one draft (That isn’t a challenge!). It is very tempting to finish the last sentence, put the last reference in the list and send it to be assessed. This is a HUGE mistake. You must at least run a spelling and grammar check. Then check you have all the right headings there, with something written in each section. Are the sections in the right order? Is all the formatting the same? 

When you have done that, now you can read your words. Just like at the end of an exam, it is all too easy to just skim through your work, you think you have put all the correct, relevant information doen, but you need to think about every sentence in there:

Is it written correctly? Does it make sense? Is it relevant to the Research Question? Does it say what I am trying to say? Is it in the right place?

Don’t be afraid to cut irrelevant or throw-away sentences, show your teacher you can write clearly and succinctly. 

6. Have a ‘Critical Friend’

You might think you have lots of these at school, but it is a good idea to pair up with someone with the agreement you will finish the lab report in plenty of time to let them read through your work and you get a chance to action any advice they give you. They don’t really need to be your friend, but someone you can talk clearly to, agree to swap lab reports on a certain day, and give and receive constructive criticism from. 

Having a critical friend also helps you to make sure you do step 5, and have a final read through. You might be more concerned about what your friend says than your teacher! Making an agreement with them will help you with step 10 and finish the lab report in plenty of time before the deadline. It will also help you practise and understand the value of steps 7 and 8 below.

7. Use the mark scheme, rubric or assessment criteria

With every task, your teacher or lecturer should share with you the standards they will be using to grade your work. They might call it a mark scheme, marking scheme, or rubric. Whatever it is called, it does the same thing. It allows any teacher to mark your work and make sure you get the correct grade. The assessment criteria should be clear and help you visualise what a good lab report should contain. If any criteria are not clear, or you do not know what your teacher expects from you - ask them. They want you to do well and will help you in any way they can.

Read the assessment criteria before you start and use it to give yourself a grade after your final read through. Use the criteria fully and be honest with yourself. This process helps you understand what your teacher is looking for, and shows you how much is needed in each section. You can do this with other tasks, like exams, it gets easier every time and you will really see a boost in your grades.

8. Use Formative Feedback Effectively

This step is valuable, but students of all ages (even your teachers if they are still studying!) just want to know what their previous efforts are worth - ‘What grade did I get?’. You might be in a school or institution that doesn’t give formative marks, this is to try and get you to read and think about the teacher’s comments. You might be in a school that does not do any formative assessment before a final, summative, grade goes into your end-of-term report. Prepare your lab report as best as you can and ask your teacher to give you some feedback on it. They should be happy to help any student who wants to improve. 

You might be in a school that does not provide formative feedback on work that will be summatively assessed, this is also fine. You can use formative comments from previous lab reports to guide you to the top marks in this one. Formative comments from your teachers often highlight common mistakes, so make sure you haven't made the same mistakes again. Showing improvements and progressing in your writing not only helps you get better marks, but also feels good.

9. Start Straight Away

It is too easy to walk out of the lab and think, ‘Well, I’ve got 2 weeks to finish the write-up’ and not think again about the lab report until the deadline is right in front of you. But by then a million other interesting things will have been through your brain, affecting your memory of that important and interesting experiment. You should spend at least 5 minutes preparing your write-up at the end of the session, or at least the end of the school day.

Five minutes doesn’t sound like much does it? What’s the point? You can’t write much in 5 minutes can you. Well, you don’t have to write a whole section, or even in sentences. You can bullet point some ideas you have and this will be a great place to start your writing when you finally sit down to finish the lab report properly. You probably won’t even remember doing the notes, but you’ll be extremely grateful you did!

Some sections, like the evaluation, are extremely important to get the higher grades, as the information is not available online. Observations and the evaluation depend on your own ideas and interpretation of the experiment, so it is infinitely better to make sure you have a record of these when they occur to you, and it will save you lots of time and headaches later.

10. Finish before the deadline

This is very hard to do, as the lab report is not the only piece of work you have to do in your busy school day. You have other subjects, commitments, and probably other science projects that also need completing and handing in. So this step requires a bit of planning, and maybe a mind-shift from you to get into the habit of doing. It probably won’t happen every time, but the earlier you finish, the more time you have to go through steps 5 – 8 and polish your lab report to get the higher marks. 

Lab reports can be frustrating, but they are part of most students’ lives for many years. The tips outlined above not only help you prepare and revise lab reports to get top marks, many of the tips can be used in other tasks and even after school in the world of employment. Keep practising, keep writing, collaborate with your friends and classmates and after a while these things become part of your normal work patterns. Your written English will improve and you will be much less stressed by your school work as you will be ready and prepared.

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