Chemical Engineering Laboratory – Report Style Guide

Department of Chemical Engineering
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Chemical Engineering Laboratory – Report Style Guide
This document provides a guide for the style and presentation of Chemical Engineering laboratory reports. Adherence to the format is an assessed component in the marking rubric for both First and Second Year Laboratory Reports.
Basic Formatting
• The report must be written in third person, past tense. For example, you should say “in this experiment the following experiments were carried out”, rather than “I carried out the following experiments”.
• The report must be typewritten, using either Calibri, Times New Roman or Arial font (font size:11pt, text line spacing:1.5). No part of the report should include handwriting. Subscripts and superscripts may of course be employed as required.
• The body of the report must be in Portrait orientation with normal page margins (2.54cm on all sides). Landscape orientation may only be employed for pages solely containing figures and tables, where required for large tables or figures.
• The report should be structured with the following sections:
Title Page
i Abstract
ii Table of Contents
iii List of Figures and Tables
iv Nomenclature
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Experimental Procedure
3.0 Results
4.0 Discussion
5.0 Conclusions
References
Appendix (optional)
• Each section should start on a new page. Appropriate sub-sections, for example 1.1, 1.2 etc., may additionally be employed as required.
• All pages, except the Title page, should be numbered. Those placed before the Introduction should be written in roman numerals i.e. i, ii, iii etc. with the Introduction starting on page 1.
• Page numbers should be placed in the footer of the document and be formatted either as simple numerals, 1, 2, 3; or as Page 1, Page 2, Page 3; or as Page 1 of X, Page 2 of X, Page 3 of X etc. where X is the last page number.
• Text boxes should not be used for any part of the report except to assist with the labelling of figures (if required).
Department of Chemical Engineering
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Abstract and Conclusion
• The Abstract and Conclusion should typically be formatted as a single paragraph of text.
• Do not use bullet points or lists and do not cite references or figures in either section.
Experimental Procedure
The Experimental Procedure section of the report should provide an appropriate description of the procedure followed, such that another person could repeat the experiments. The procedures followed should be presented as a numbered sequence of tasks. You should include appropriate annotated diagrams of the experiment equipment to support the explanation of the tasks.
Graphics
All images, pictures, graphs, sketches etc., are considered as a figure. You should ensure that figures are of an appropriate size in the document, of good quality, with all text legible. Be very careful when using jpeg images, if you enlarge, they often have a poor quality. Ensure no unwanted information is visible.
• Every figure must have an appropriate caption, positioned below the figure. Make sure that the figure is referenced in the body of the report (not required for individual figures in an Appendix).
• Make sure that each figure and caption appears on the same page.
• All figures must be numbered, appearing in consecutive order through the document, for example Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.
Graphs and Charts
• As a general rule, experimental data points should be shown as symbols on a graph. You may connect symbols with lines, but be careful about unrealistic curved lines, use straight lines.
• Ensure that an appropriate legend is provided when a graph contains multiple data sets
• Ensure that both ordinate and abscissa are labelled with units where appropriate.
• All symbols and expressions on the chart should be defined, together with correct physical units.
Data Tables
• Tables should be employed to present raw data collected during an experiment and any derived values.
• Every table must have an appropriate caption, positioned above the table, and be numbered, in consecutive order, as they occur through the document, for example Table 1, Table 2 etc.
• Make sure that the table is referenced in the body of the report (not required for individual tables in an Appendix). Make sure that each table and caption appears on the same page.
• All symbols and expressions in the table should be defined, together with correct physical units (units are usually shown in the second row of a table, below the name and symbol).
Department of Chemical Engineering
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Equations
• All equations should be numbered, in consecutive order. Equation numbers should be right justified.
• All symbols and expressions in an equation should be defined in the Nomenclature section, including appropriate physical units.
• Equations presented as images are not acceptable. Equations should be written using the built-in equation editor in your word processor. In Microsoft Word, this is referred to as the Equation Editor, available in the Insert Ribbon.
References
All sources of information must be cited using Harvard notation.
• If you do not cite your sources of information (including both text and images), then you run the risk of committing the academic offense of plagiarism. Plagiarism is taking the work of others and passing it off as your own (even unintentionally).
• Only Harvard notation should be used, no other form of referencing or citation is accepted. Make sure that you do not accidentally number your references, even if cited in Harvard format.
When seeking sources of information, a general recommendation is that you should using web based sources other unless absolutely necessary.
Spelling and Grammar
We recognise that for many students, English may not be the native language. However, the report must be written in English, to an acceptable level of grammar such that the content is readily understood.
Finally, when writing your report, make sure that you,
• Define abbreviations when used for the first time in the report.
• Use the spell-checker in your word processor.
• Proof-read the document before submitting.
Department of Chemical Engineering
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Useful Information
The Library provides a substantial resource to help writing academic documents, see
https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/writing
For help with references and to correctly cite using Harvard notation. See links below
https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/referencing
https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/referencing/harvard
For help with Microsoft office software, see
https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/officesoftware/word
Microsoft Excel is recommended to be used to create graphs and charts (though other software packages are available).
For additional help with Microsoft Word equations, see
https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/write-an-equation-or-formula-1d01cabc-ceb1-458d-bc70-7f9737722702
There are many tutorials available on the web, however, make sure you do not get confused and follow a tutorial for the older Microsoft Equation Editor. Make sure that the tutorial is for the equation edition now found in MS Word 2013 or later.