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The Finishing Touches: How to Write a Lab Report Conclusion
Author:
Samantha Williams
Oct 2, 2024
9 min
Table of contents
- Putting the Finishing Touches: How to Write a Lab Conclusion
- How to Write a Good Conclusion for a Lab Report
- What Should Be in a Conclusion for a Lab Report
- So, What to Include in Conclusion of Lab Report, Actually?
- How to Write a Conclusion Paragraph for a Lab Report? Briefly!
- Check Out This Lab Report Conclusion Example to Draft Yours
- The Concluding Remarks on How to End a Lab Report
Putting the Finishing Touches: How to Write a Lab Conclusion
The fact that you are here clearly indicates two things:
- You already have an answer to the question: what is a lab report?
- You are not sure how to conclude it properly.
Many academic papers bug students because of the numerous details they have to keep in mind. Proper structure, language, style, formatting, and so on. That’s one of the main reasons why writing a conclusion of a lab report causes a lot of hesitation.
What to include there? What to omit? How do you pick a proper writing style for it?
Well, luckily for you, the conclusion is not the longest segment of your report. Basically, all you need to do is to describe the result of your experiment in several sentences.
But why do we need an article on it if it’s that simple? You will find the answer to this and other questions you may have if you continue reading.
How to Write a Good Conclusion for a Lab Report
The first step in figuring out how to write a conclusion for a lab report is learning the main goal of this segment of your report. The main aim of this paragraph in your report is to briefly describe your experiment and its result. But there are several things you need to keep in mind when writing it for it to be done properly:
- Keep up with the tone of your research
- Don’t copy from other segments of the report
- Use passive voice
- Mention practical results only
Now, we’ll explain a bit.
The tone: depending on the requirements of your report, you either explain everything to the reader or offer a description of the experiment and its results.
Copying from other segments: you can’t avoid mentioning things stated throughout the report, but don’t just copy and paste them; paraphrase them.
Passive voice: write the conclusion, like the whole report, in the past tense using the passive voice.
Practical results: you need to describe your findings and their importance to science, not your own attitude to them.
What Should Be in a Conclusion for a Lab Report
Now, with the basic rules out of the way, the next step in understanding how to write the conclusion of a lab report is to learn what should be in it.
Whether your experiment was in physics or chemistry, the conclusion of your report generally consists of four parts.
The first part is reminding the readers of the purpose of your experiment. You do it by rephrasing it, not simply copying and pasting it from the abstract. You should do it in two or three sentences.
The next part is where you describe the methods you’ve used and the results that you have achieved. Mind that you cannot present any new ideas that weren’t mentioned in the previous segments of the report here. Keep it short and, once again, paraphrase it.
The next part is dedicated to describing your main findings. In the final part, you need to make a brief analytical remark about your research and its findings.
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So, What to Include in Conclusion of Lab Report, Actually?
It may seem that we are running in circles and pretty much repeating the same thing, doesn’t it? Well, the previous passage gave you an idea of how to write the conclusion, more or less. Now, let’s be more precise and simply outline it:
- Describe the purpose of your experiment
- Briefly talk about the methods and describe the equipment used
- Discuss the samples you used and the results that you achieved
- Offer a brief analysis of your report, providing your arguments and assumptions
- Deliberate about how your findings relate to your discipline
Just like the knowledge of how to write a good lab report and how to format a lab report, the art of writing a good conclusion to the report lies in the outline.
Now that you know the five main points that should be included in the conclusion, you are pretty much ready to start writing it. But we have a few tips you may need to start writing.
Tips on How to Start a Conclusion in a Lab Report
The most common complaint about the lab report conclusion is that it’s nothing but rehashing the report. As a matter of fact, it is. But instead of whining about it, you can really use it for your benefit.
So, how do you start your conclusion? Go to the abstract and the introduction. Condense all that to two or three sentences – and you have the first part of your conclusion.
Then, go segment by segment of your report and condense them into two or three sentences for the remaining parts of your conclusion.
If you were making any notes while writing the report, they can come in handy when crafting your conclusion, so check them out as well. But don’t forget the golden rule of writing the conclusion — don’t introduce any new ideas.
Basically, you don’t have to do a lot when writing a conclusion. Yes, it’s a repetition; hence, it’s way easier for you to start writing it.
How to Write a Conclusion Paragraph for a Lab Report? Briefly!
One thing that many students are missing in their figuring out how to write a conclusion in a lab report is the length.
The lab report is quite short, so there’s no need to write a lengthy conclusion. The key word here is the “paragraph.” Hence, it’s not an epic piece but a short summary.
So, on average, the conclusion consists of four parts. Each part is two to three sentences long. Hence, your conclusion paragraph should be a minimum of eight sentences long and a maximum of twelve sentences long.
Of course, you can take certain liberties, as, say, seventeen sentences won’t harm your grades.
What Is the Reason Behind Writing a Lab Report Conclusion?
Going back to the complaints that the conclusion of lab report is nothing but a repetition of the report begs the question: what’s the reason behind it?
The explanation is quite simple. Scientific works don’t have the traditional narrative, meaning they don’t have to be read like essays from the beginning to the end.
Your professor, when checking your lab report, may not start by reading it from the title to the appendix. They may check the abstract and the conclusion first. And the absence of contradicting information in those two segments greenlights your good grades.
Given that it may be the second segment that your professor will check, it pretty much shows the purpose of the conclusion.
Check Out This Lab Report Conclusion Example to Draft Yours
Finally, we get to the obligatory part of the article. The part where we show you a lab conclusion example. After all, there is no easier way to comprehend how to write something than seeing an example of it.
Let’s imagine that you were measuring the temperature and pressure of the heated ideal gas in a closed container with the objective of checking whether the pV = mRT equation holds:
The objective of the experiment was to examine the correlation of temperature and pressure of an ideal gas heated in a closed vessel and to verify whether the pV = mRT equation holds. The pressure vessel and transducer, as well as the thermocouple, were used for the experiment. The experiment succeeded in demonstrating that temperature and pressure for an ideal gas follow the pV = mRT equation.
But keep in mind that there’s no ideal conclusion lab report example for a subject different from yours. It should just give you an idea of how to write it. As you can see, it’s a no-brainer.
The Concluding Remarks on How to End a Lab Report
Well, where to start? To be honest, upon completing this article, we are also a bit lost on how to conclude it. But, using our own tips, we go to the beginning and read what we have written so far. That helps us to write the conclusion. So, writing it is a no-brainer if you are keeping in mind crucial aspects.
The first thing is understanding why you need it. And you require this segment as it’s going to be checked by your professor right after reading the abstract. So, making sure that they don’t contradict each other is crucial.
The rules of writing it are quite simple. Using passive voice, you, in the past tense, describe the purpose of your experiment, methods and equipment, and results achieved in the experiment. Then, you provide a brief analysis of your report and how your findings relate to your field of study.
That’s it. Follow the rules, and you will scribe a perfect conclusion.
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Writing a conclusion for your lab report is quite easy. You need to briefly restate the purpose of your research and describe the methods of the experiment. Add a brief analysis of your findings and the outcomes of them for your discipline. You should dedicate up to three sentences to each aspect.
To properly understand how to write lab conclusion is to know what to include there. The conclusion consists of a brief description of the purpose of the experiment, a description of the experiment per se, including the methods and/or equipment used, findings of the experiment, and their meaning.
The conclusion in lab report is just a paragraph. The average length is just several sentences. Considering that you need to dedicate up to three sentences to the purpose of the experiment, its description, methods, findings, and outcomes, the conclusion length can be less than ten sentences.
A lab report is not designed to be read like an essay – from start to finish. Your professor may check different segments of your report before reading the report completely. Most likely, your professor would check the abstract and conclusion first. Thus, a good lab report conclusion can be crucial for your grades.
