A report is a written record of practical work. It tells other people why the work was done, what was used, what was done, and what was found.
Why we write a report
Imagine doing an interesting experiment but never telling anyone about it. Nobody else could learn from it, check it, or try it themselves. Writing a report solves this problem. A good report lets other people understand exactly what we did, see whether our result actually answers our question, and repeat the same work later if they want to check it. This is why almost every piece of practical work ends with a report.
There is a second reason, and it is the one working scientists care about most. A result that nobody can repeat is not yet trusted knowledge. If you claim that a certain plant grows faster in shade, other people must be able to follow your written steps exactly, do the same thing themselves, and see whether they get the same answer. Your report is what makes that possible. Written carelessly, it stops other people from checking you, and a claim nobody can check is not much use to science.
The ten parts of a report
A report about work done inside a laboratory usually has ten parts. Each part answers a different question about the work.
| Part | What goes here |
|---|---|
| Title | Tells the reader which practical work this report is about |
| Objective | Says why the work was done |
| Materials required | Lists everything that was used |
| Figure | A clear drawing of the setup, with the parts labelled |
| Procedure | The steps followed, written in the order they happened, in the past tense |
| Observation | What was actually seen while doing the work |
| Result | What the work showed, based on the observation |
| Analysis | A closer look at the facts that were collected |
| Conclusion | The final answer reached |
| Precaution | The care taken to stay safe and get a fair result |
A complete report, written out
A list of ten part names is hard to hold in your head. Seeing all ten used once, on one small experiment, is much easier. Here is a simple magnet test written up properly, part by part. Read the whole thing once, then read it again watching how each part does a job the others cannot.
1Testing Which Materials a Magnet Attracts
- Objective
- To find out which everyday materials are attracted by a magnet.
- Materials required
- One bar magnet, an iron nail, a copper coin, a plastic ruler, a rubber band, an aluminium spoon, and a piece of paper.
Procedure: The six objects were placed in a row on the table, well apart from each other. The magnet was brought slowly towards each object in turn, stopping about two centimetres away. Whether the object moved towards the magnet was noted each time. Every test was repeated twice.
Observation: The iron nail jumped towards the magnet both times, from about two centimetres away. The copper coin, the plastic ruler, the rubber band, the aluminium spoon, and the paper did not move at all, even when the magnet almost touched them.
Result: Only the iron nail was attracted by the magnet. The other five objects were not.
Analysis: Of the six objects, the nail was the only one made of iron. The coin and the spoon are also metals, made of copper and aluminium, and neither of them was attracted. So being a metal is not on its own enough to be pulled by a magnet. The plastic, rubber, and paper are not metals at all, and none of them moved either.
Conclusion: A magnet attracts iron. It does not attract every metal, and it does not attract non-metals such as plastic, rubber, and paper.
Precaution: The magnet was kept well away from phones and watches. Each object was tested twice, so that one odd result could not be mistaken for the real answer.
Look closely at what the analysis part did there. The result simply said which object moved. The analysis went further and noticed something the result alone could never tell you: two of the objects that did not move were metals. That single noticing is what turned a short list of results into an actual piece of understanding. This is why analysis and result are two separate parts and not one.
Title comes first
The title is always written first, because it tells the reader which practical work the report is about before they read anything else.
Procedure uses past tense
The procedure is written in the past tense, because it describes steps that have already happened, not steps still to come.
Observation is not opinion
Write only what you actually saw, even when it is not what you expected. An honest surprise in the observation is far more useful than a tidy answer you wished for.
Conclusion answers the objective
A good check before finishing: read your objective, then read your conclusion. If the conclusion does not answer the question the objective asked, something is missing.
A common mistake is writing the procedure as instructions, like a recipe telling someone what to do next. A report is written after the work is finished, so it describes what was already done, not what to do. Compare these two: 'Bring the magnet near the nail' is an instruction, while 'The magnet was brought near the nail' is a report. The second one is correct, because it records something that has already happened.
Here is an easy way to remember the order. Think of it as a story: why did I do this (objective), what did I need (materials), what did I do (procedure), what did I see (observation), and what did I learn (result and conclusion).
TODO: Add YouTube video ID for Report Writing and Its Parts
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