(1) The Title Page must contain the laboratory name, the student's name, the course number, the course title, the instructor's name, and the due date of the report.

(2) The Executive Summary page should be a clear and concise summary of the report which highlights the most important conclusions.  The executive summary should be as clear, specific, and quantitative as necessary to convey the objective and major conclusions of the experiment.  For example, "Brinell and Rockwell hardness measurements of 1010, 1020, 1035 and 1080 steel were completed to examine the relationship between the percent weight carbon in a steel and the hardness.  One Brinell and three Rockwell hardness measurments were taken for each of the 1 inch diameter steel specimens.  Hardness measurements ranged from xx for the 1010 steel to yy for the 1080 steel, with the hardness generally increasing with the amount of carbon in the steel.  Hardness measurements were also taken for . . .".  This section should be no more than ½ to 3/4 page.

(3) The Procedure should outline the steps to perform the experiment.  Often, this should include a sketch illustrating the type of test that is performed.  This should typically be kept to no more than 1/2 page of text (single spaced).

(4) The Results and Analysis should typically include all of the plots, tables and computations required for the lab assignment.  Here, the experimental results, the analysis of these results, and any required computations should be embedded in a text based format that refers to the plots and other figures that summarize the work completed.  The key equations required for the computations should be given and numbered to the right of the equation.  All terms in the equations should be defined in the text.  All figures and tables in the report should be referred to from the text and should be numbered with a caption (tables are numbered above the table, and figures are numbered below the figure).  The physical significance of the findings must be discussed.

(5) The References section should list any references used in writing the report.

(6) The Appendices should be numbered as Appendix 1, Appendix 2, and so on.  Appendices should include all raw data and supporting calculations that are too long to describe in detail in the Analysis and Results section.  All Mathcad or spreadsheet files used in the analysis of the data should be given here.  Appendices should be referred to from the body of the report.
 

Other:

(1) The report must be enclosed in a "Louisiana Tech University -- Engineering Laboratories" folder which is available in the bookstore.  Staple your report inside the folder with one staple on the upper left corner of the page.

(2) All figures and equations should be numbered.  For example, figure number 1 should be denoted as Fig. 1, while equation number 1 should be denoted as (1) to the right of the equation.

(3) All pages should be numbered.

(4) All reports must be typewritten or word processed.

(5) Grades will be based on both technical and non-technical considerations as outlined HERE.