Guidelines for Laboratory Report: Can we identify a compound that could be added to spermatozoa in vitro to enhance their motility?
Formatting and word count etc
Although there is not a lower word limit, you report should not exceed 2000 words. This word count excludes references but DOES INCLUDE figure
legends.
The report should be produced using MS Word, with the main text in 12 point font with 1.5 line spacing, 2.0 cm left and right margins and 2.5 cm top
and bottom.
The report must be fully referenced
Reports will be automatically monitored for evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct and penalties will be imposed on anyone who
infringes the Code of Practice on Plagiarism Academinc Dishonesty
Structure of the report
Introduction: You should clearly explain the topic to be investigated and why it is of interest. Where possible, your topic should be based on a
particular hypothesis; you should state clearly what it is. You should describe in general terms the sort of evidence that you regard as relevant to
investigating this hypothesis, and what your general approach will be.
You should also make the aims of the report very clear.
Materials and Methods: This section documents how the experiments occurred. It is important to accurately document the procedures of your laboratory
experiment in-order that others can repeat your results and also so that you can replicate your work later. Refer to example 2 and also the Paper.
Results: This section contains raw data organised into graphs and tables etc. This section also contains a written summary of your findings. Refer to
example report 1 for details on how best to approach this. (Again read the paper). Analyse the data (T-test and Anova to check to see if there are
any differences in the data)
Discussion: The Discussion section is where you round off your report, explain what your findings mean, and place them in the overall context of the
field. You will usually include a summary of your main findings near the start of your Discussion, but you should go well beyond this. When writing
your discussion you should think back to the aims that you stated in your introduction, and possibly explicitly (but briefly) re-state them, and then
show to what extent your experiments have actually accomplished those aims. You must consider any shortcomings in your data or methodology, and, if
possible, argue that these do not detract from your main conclusions. You can discuss what further work could be performed to take the project to a
more advanced stage. You can speculate on interpretations of your data that go beyond what you have actually demonstrated, so long as you make it
clear that this is indeed speculation. You may want to end of your Discussion with a succinct and pithy statement of how, hopefully, your findings
have advanced knowledge in the field of your research.
General guidelines
Be as concise and clear as possible.
Write in a formal (but not pompous) style, and avoid colloquialisms.
Write the report in an essay style, using proper sentences and paragraphs. Make the sense of the text flow, so that ideas follow each other in a
logical sequence.
All abbreviations should be defined in full when first used, e.g. deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
Use sub-headings to clarify the organisation of the topic.
If in doubt about a style issue, study a suitable published paper to see how it has been tackled by a professional publisher.
Make sure that every sentence you write makes sense! This means that before you start to write the sentence, you have to be exactly clear in your own
mind what it is that you are trying to say. This may sound obvious, but it is surprisingly easy to have a vague and ill-defined thought, that ends up
as a vague and nonsensical sentence.
¦
Proof read your work carefully before submitting it to eliminate typographical errors.
Figure and Tables etc
All figures and tables must be numbered. Maintain separate lists for each (i.e. the first figure is Fig. 1, and the first table is Table 1). Maintain
one number sequence throughout the thesis: do not restart numbers in each chapter or section.
All figures and tables must be referred to by number in the text. You can use a text style that either refers to figures explicitly, such as The
experiments illustrated in Fig. 13 show that many birds like to eat pretzels., or implicitly, such as many birds like to eat pretzels (Fig. 13). You
should settle on one style and use it consistently, rather than swapping between styles. Make sure that the numbering of figures and tables reflects
their order of appearance in the text.
Figures and tables should, if possible, be placed in-line in the text (rather than on a separate page) near to the place where they are first
mentioned.
All figures and tables should have a legend associated with them. The legend is a short paragraph (maybe a single sentence) which allows the reader
to understand what the figure/table shows without reference back to the main text. The legend should include the key to any symbols shown in the
figure (unless they are defined as part of the figure itself). If you are not sure about what goes into a legend, look at range of textbooks or
research papers for examples.
A set of figures which are closely related (e.g. a series of graphs showing the effects of different concentrations of the same chemical) can be
grouped into a single figure, with sub-section labels such as A, B, C etc. You can even have sub-sub-section labels (Ai, Aii, Bi etc) within the
single figure.
Avoid redundancy between graphs and tables.
Notes: The report will go through a program for plagiarism detection, so please make sure that the report will be original and has no similarity at
all.
There is a statistical part in the report where you should create graphs and plots using excel to support your arguments.
I will attach 2 examples and one scientific paper for your reference and to help you understand what exactly is required from you. the examples have
comments on them to help you avoid the mistakes that has been done and to follow their structure.
You are required to use no less than 8 references (Scientific papers, journals and books) to write the report. everything should be cited properly.
Value (% motility) Replicate 40/80% Treatment Media (Capacitation, C; Non capacitating, N)
34 1 40 Drug N
53.8 1 40 Drug N
13 1 40 Drug N
16 1 40 Drug N
58 1 40 Drug N
29 2 40 Drug N
41 2 40 Drug N
19 2 40 Drug N
4.4 2 40 Drug N
50 2 40 Drug N
16 1 40 No drug N
16 1 40 No drug N
5 1 40 No drug N
6 1 40 No drug N
56.5 1 40 No drug N
24 2 40 No drug N
20 2 40 No drug N
0 2 40 No drug N
14 2 40 No drug N
44 2 40 No drug N
85 1 80 Drug N
71 1 80 Drug N
67 1 80 Drug N
69.6 1 80 Drug N
49 1 80 Drug N
82 2 80 Drug N
76 2 80 Drug N
50 2 80 Drug N
71.7 2 80 Drug N
75.1 2 80 Drug N
79 1 80 No drug N
51 1 80 No drug N
82 1 80 No drug N
65 1 80 No drug N
68.2 1 80 No drug N
79 2 80 No drug N
47 2 80 No drug N
81 2 80 No drug N
59 2 80 No drug N
70.3 2 80 No drug N
45 1 40 Drug CM
71 1 40 Drug CM
19 1 40 Drug CM
20 1 40 Drug CM
65.4 1 40 Drug CM
39 2 40 Drug CM
73 2 40 Drug CM
29 2 40 Drug CM
9.6 2 40 Drug CM
57 2 40 Drug CM
12 1 40 No drug CM
23 1 40 No drug CM
11 1 40 No drug CM
12 1 40 No drug CM
44 1 40 No drug CM
15 2 40 No drug CM
36 2 40 No drug CM
7 2 40 No drug CM
3.3 2 40 No drug CM
60 2 40 No drug CM
86 1 80 Drug CM
51.4 1 80 Drug CM
78 1 80 Drug CM
74 1 80 Drug CM
66 1 80 Drug CM
89 2 80 Drug CM
55 2 80 Drug CM
74 2 80 Drug CM
77 2 80 Drug CM
60 2 80 Drug CM
70 1 80 No drug CM
85.6 1 80 No drug CM
72 1 80 No drug CM
56 1 80 No drug CM
61 1 80 No drug CM
78 2 80 No drug CM
55 2 80 No drug CM
56 2 80 No drug CM
64 2 80 No drug CM
66 2 80 No drug CM
