KNS 1461 Civil Engineering Laboratory 2

Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Dear all,
After marking some (more than half) of your V2 reports, I found out that most of you
are still lack in report writing techniques. I believe that in your lab manual,
APPENDIX B has guide you how the format of the lab report should be (I was the
one who prepared it 7 8 years ago, so I am very SURE it is there!). However, there
are still some who did not follow the formatting guidelines.
As for the reporting the experiment, only a very few did well. The rest was mediocre
or badly written. So, in order for you to send me a good reports next time (and you
can use this for other lab reports in the future (Civil Engineering Laboratory 3 6;
p/s:- I will so you again in Lab 6 Water and Wastewater Engineering, so please be
prepared)), I came out with this tips/guidelines on how to produce a proper lab report.
This is just a guideline and you can add other things that you (and your lecturers)
think are suitable. And you can also sacrifice some of your time social-mediaing
(facebook, Instagram, twitter, wechat, whatsapp, etc.) and playing Clash of Clans (or
any other games you are addicted to) and surf the net on how to write a proper lab
report.

Jethro Henry Adam

Prepared by : Jethro Henry Adam

KNS 1461 Civil Engineering Laboratory 2

Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Tips / Guidelines for Writing Lab Report

Title page
Please refer to Appendix B.

Table of content
The content of the lab report and the page where it can be found.
It can be written in a table form.

Lab code & title of experiment

Eg. V2 Angle and Distance Measurement.

Theory / Introduction
Please do not copy the one from the lab manual; you should show your own
comprehension of the topic
It should provide the background theory, previous study/research, or formulas that
are related to the experiment
Do not write too much (and too little); try to limit the theory/introduction part in
half a page (or 2/3 of the page)
You should write in your own words, or if you have to paraphrasing or quoting
other sources, PLEASE cite the references; eg. By utilizing the telescope camera
of the total station, it is possible to capture video streams in real time with 10fps
and an angular resolution of approximately 2/px (Ehrhart & Lienhart, 2015). Or
A study by Sagnot et. al. (2014) showed that the horizontal angle was accurately
determined, but this was not the case for the vertical angle.
Normally, use present tense when writing this part because the theory, equipment
etc. still exist.

Objective(s)
State the objective(s) of the experiment.

Prepared by : Jethro Henry Adam

KNS 1461 Civil Engineering Laboratory 2

Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Apparatus / Materials
State the apparatus and materials used for the experiment in point (or numbered)
form.
Make sure you only write the things you used during the experiment (and not
blindly copy the one written in the manual).

Procedure
Describe the process in chronological order; use number.
Explain all the steps they actually happened, not as they were supposed to happen;
meaning you only write what you did during the experiment (not blindly copy the
lab manual).
A correctly written procedure is when someone else should be able to duplicate
your experiment based on what you have written.
Any figure or table used should be clearly labelled and named.
In terms on grammar, passive past tense should be use.

Result
Most of the results are reported in tabulated (or graphs or figures or calculations)
form. HOWEVER, you still NEED to state all SIGNIFICANT results explicitly in
verbal form. The key result(s) should be stated in sentence form too.
Use a sentence or two to draw attention to key points in your tables or graphs or
figures or calculations (MOST OF YOU DIDNT DO THIS!)
The calculations (if any) should be clear, meaning the reader or checker (in this
case, ME) understand what it is about.

Discussion
The provided question(s) in the lab manual is (are) must be answered.
HOWEVER, you SHOULD also add more in this part.
Show that you understand the experiment beyond the simple level of completing
it.
EXPLAIN. ANALYSE. INTERPRET.
Prepared by : Jethro Henry Adam

KNS 1461 Civil Engineering Laboratory 2

Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Example questions you can answer in order to write a good discussion :o What do the results indicate clearly?
o What have you found?
o Explain what you know with certainty based on your results.
o What is the significance of the results?
o What ambiguities exist?
o What questions might we raise?
o Find logical explanations for problems in the data.
o Analyse experimental error. Was it avoidable? How?

Conclusion
Referring to your objective(s), state what you have found / learned.
Demonstrate that you indeed did what you have claimed by adding details and
elaborations. If you have calculated something in your result, restate the important
value(s) as well.
You MAY want to add by stating the weaknesses of the experiment and suggest
future work(s).

Reference
Use proper referencing style and stick to one style only. You can use APA,
Harvard, Oxford, etc.

Miscellaneous
I know that most (if not all) of you divide the tasks of preparing the report i.e. si A do
the cover (cover jer???), si B do the introduction, si C do the methodology, etc. and si
E do the compiling (gathering all the parts and print them out and submit it to me).
However, you should have a co-ordination among your group members. This is where
the compiler (si E) needs to do the real compiler job do the checking, make sure the
format is correct and correlate with each other (eg. In methodology part, you

Prepared by : Jethro Henry Adam

KNS 1461 Civil Engineering Laboratory 2

Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

mentioned stations 1, 2 and 3 but in the Results and Discussions you dont have those
stations but station A, B and C instead).
Please make sure your report is need and tidy not only good to read but pleasant to
see. This is where formatting is VERY important. Appendix B clearly told you about
the font and margin for your report. STICK TO IT!!! And when writing the
paragraph, make sure you justify the alignment of your text and not the default Align
Text Left.
use this

Figure 1 Aligning your paragraph

Prepared by : Jethro Henry Adam