---
title: "Formal Laboratory Report Guidelines"
subtitle: "Intro to Imaging and Video Systems"
bibliography: references.bib
date-modified: last-modified
---

## Overview

A formal laboratory report is an important culminating element for any scientific experiment. It provides both a record of your work and a final analysis of your collected data and your experimental results. It is necessary that a laboratory report be easily understandable to another person of similar background. It should contain description of the theories on which you are basing your experiments, a summarized experimental procedure that could be replicated, observations, data collection, results and conclusions.

## Required Sections

### Introduction/Objectives

Describe the purpose and goals of the lab. What problem is being investigated? How is it going to be studied? Is there a hypothesis established?

### Background/Theory

Provide context for the lab/experiment by discussing relevant theory that frames the experiments being conducted. This should be a narrative that provides a brief tutorial (with references) for an intelligent reader not specifically familiar with the topic of the lab. Include applicable scientific and mathematical concepts and equations (which should themselves be separate in the body of the writing and consecutively numbered). Theory introduced should support a formal declaration of hypothesis or expectation.

Background information should also include a brief summary of pertinent equipment used or involved in the experiment, its engineering specification and limitation and any detail of its operation that will influence the results.

### Methods/Procedures

Describe the experiment setup, methods used to collect the data. This section should expand introduction of equipment discussed in the Background section to its particular contribution to the experimental procedure. Include images or diagrams where they help explain what you did.

### Results & Discussion

Describe and show (with images, plots, equations, etc.) the data you collected and how you analyzed it. Provide observations and their connection to theories. Present (again with graphics and words) the significant findings of these analyses. Discuss insights gained from the experiment/lab. Describe any problems and summarize sources of error you encountered; discuss any impact they may have had on your results; and describe ways that these problems might be addressed in future studies.

**Important:** Do NOT include extensive arithmetic or evidence of mathematical flow for your particular numerical results in this section. This information may be included in an appendix entry (see below).

### Conclusions

State what you have learned from the experiment. Were the results as you expected? Was your hypothesis confirmed? If not, why?

### References

List all references cited in the report in a standard and consistent style, preferably using superscript numerical reference markers in the body and a corresponding numbered bibliography at the end of the report. More information on citation standards can be found at the [RIT Library Citations Guide](https://library.rit.edu/citations/).

### Appendix

This may be used for any large data sets, tables of numbers, example mathematical flow from calculations, sample code or other elements which otherwise detract from the reader's fluid interpretation of your report.

## General Guidelines

- **Writing Quality:** Writing should be clean and concise; this should be solid enough to be published

- **Labeling:** Properly label all tables, figures and equations and maintain a consistent numbering scheme throughout the report

- **Formatting:** Use organized section headings and subheadings and employ text formatting (bold, italics, etc.) where appropriate

- **Professional Standards:** Consult any number of published articles to offer guidance on what polished and properly formatted technical writing should look like
