How do I write a Results section?

Get Ready! How to prepare your Results table

Tables are a great way to present and compare a lot of information, revise a lot of material, and importantly, record the results of an experiment. Not just in the final lab report, but also as you are doing the experiment and when you are transforming (doing maths on) the data you record. So in this article, we will guide you through the basic Results Table structure, give you some tips and pointers, and you’ll be able to use tables efficiently in the lab anbd in your lab reports!

Recording Results

No more scraps of paper with columns of numbers for you! Whether on paper or on your computer, drawn roughly in pen or with a ruler and sharp pencil, your results will make more sense to you, if you put them directly into a table. So before you start organising your lab equipment and materials, ALWAYS prepare your Results Table before you start. Your life will be easier and the top marks will be a bit closer!

Preparing your table before you start helps to cement in your mind the IV and DV, with their manipulation methods (how you will change the IV and how you will measure the DV). Older students may also include error into the headings of the table, but no matter your age, it will be more obvious if some results have been missed or are erroneous and should be repeated.

The IV normally goes down the side of a Results Table, in the first column, showing how you change (manipulate) the IV. Across the first row, at the top of the table will be the DV, and the units with which you measure it. All the empty boxes you fill in will be the DV measurements. 

Remember, experiments normally have to be performed for each IV change at least 3 times, so you can calculate an average. Your IV should have at last 3 changes; therefore, the most basic of tables, with no further calculations needed apart from the average, looks like this:

You will also see “Trial 1, Trial 2, and Trial 3” written as T1, T2, and T3. “Average” may be abbreviated also, as “Ave” or “Avg”.

This type of table is easy to expand as your experiments get more complicated, or you need to record more results. For example:

These tables can easily be drawn by hand, or if you are using a laptop or computer in the lab, it may be best to use a spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice, or similar) if you have more calculations to perform than just the average result per IV change. 

Presentation of results

If you have to draw your tables and graphs by hand, although you are probably keen to use a computer, drawing tables and graphs by hand is a great advantage when you start doing lab reports and gives you a really good understanding of what you will be asking the computer to do for you. So don’t give your teacher a hard time about it! Using a sharp pencil and ruler properly also helps prepare you for biological drawings, which you may also have to do. However, if you have to do all the maths by hand, make sure you leave enough space underneath your table to show our calculations—or at least some example calculations so your teacher knows you know how to do it!

If you are using a computer to present your final table, make sure you use the computer to perform the maths, it is much quicker. 

Below are some examples of tables that are frequently used in lab reports, so you can see how they should look.

As you can see, the IV stays on the left side of the table, and the DV is recorded in the empty squares (cells). Let’s have a look at one more example, with some example data written in:

You will notice:

1. The squares (cells) that you write in only have numbers.

2. The Trial columns all have the same number of decimal places.

3. The average (and other transformed data) can have a different number of decimal places to the Trial data, but that column still has the same number of decimal places.

The points in bold are important to remember, and they are common mistakes that students make, and so will be spotted by your teacher straight away. This may cost you marks, as your teacher is looking for consistency in the presentation of your work, especially in the Tables. The first point, that you only write numbers in the cells, helps presentation, readability, and is necessary when you use a spreadsheet to do your calculations for you. Your computer will not like words in the cells and will give you an #error if you include words, symbols, or units in the cells.

ABEL INSIGHT:

Different countries use different punctuation for decimal places. For example, in Spain a comma is used, for example 187,7 is the same as 187.7 in Britain. Make sure you are aware of what punctuation is used in your school, and importantly what your spreadsheet programme uses, as if you use a mix, or the wrong one, you will receive an #error in the spreadsheet. 

What to do if you need to change ALL the punctuation in your table or spreadsheet: 

• Use the CTRL+F function to search for the wrong decimal place marker (e.g. a comma) and put the correct marker in the Replace box. 

• Click “Replace All” and your computer will do the hard work for you! Any #errors should be replaced with the correct number.

Another top tip: 

If you have different amounts of numbers after the decimal place in your spreadsheet, highlight all the columns and use the decimal place → or ← buttons to give them all the same number.

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