How to Write a Conclusion for a Lab
Knowing how to write a conclusion for a lab report is very important because the conclusion is an important section where you state what you learned from the lab experiment while justifying how you learned it. The conclusion is the last paragraph and a working part of a paper. In this section, you should push readers into thinking about the global implications of the findings that you present in the report.
In the conclusion, you should sum up the procedures that you used and the results of the lab project for the reader. Also restate the goals of the lab project and include final notes or data on whether the experiment answered the posed question successfully. Readers should get all the vital points of the lab report by simply reading the conclusion while noting the unforeseen results of the experiment.
How to write a conclusion for a lab report step by step
The conclusion of a lab report ought to be written in the format of an essay. It should have proper spelling as well as correct punctuation.
Here are steps that you should follow when writing this section of a lab report:
- Restate the purpose or the problem
Start by restating the purpose or the problem and whether the experiment supported the purpose of conducting the lab experiment. This is very important because it ensures that your conclusion relates to the purpose or problem that you stated at the introduction of the report. Remember that the purpose or problem is what necessitated the experiment.
Example
The purpose of carrying out this experiment was to establish the comparison between acid pH after adding bases to it. Data from this experiment supports the notion that acid pH increases with base addition to it.
- Discuss how you reached the conclusion with the help of the gathered data
To show how the data that you collected during the experiment relates, refer to the graphs that you used to present the findings in the body section. Your explanation in the conclusion should be based on the relationship of the information presented in the graphs. If you included an equation while presenting the findings, use the equation to explain the relationship of your data in the conclusion.
- Discuss possible errors in data collection or procedures
In any experiment, there are possible causes of errors. Therefore, discuss possible reasons why your conclusion or data may be inaccurate because of certain errors.
- End the conclusion
Close your conclusion by restating the conclusion and the problem. You can also suggest changes that should be made while carrying out future experiments and how they are likely to affect the collected data.
Example
Various bases were used to indicate their neutralization effect on acid pH in this lab experiment. It might be helpful to add base into acid using a dropper rather than a beaker to prevent base spilling into acid. The other part of the process is safe and following it is easy.
Checklist for a conclusion of a lab report
Once you have known how to write a conclusion for a lab report, find out how you can evaluate your conclusion to determine if it serves its purpose.
To do this, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
- Have you restated the goal of your experiment?
The conclusion should start with a restatement of the goal of the lab experiment. Restate the goal that you stated in the introductory paragraph though using different words. Ask yourself, what question were you trying to answer with the experiment? It is also important that your conclusion include a summary of the predictions that you had made for the results of the experiment.
- Have your described the used methods or procedure?
Your lab report should briefly summarize the methods or procedures that you used in the experiment. Note that a comprehensive list of the items that you used in your experiment should be in the section where you discuss the methods in the body of the report. The conclusion should provide just a summary of the procedures or methods and the reason for choosing them to obtain data.
- Does the conclusion include an analysis of the final data?
The focus of a lab report is on the data that you collected from the experiment. This includes all the data that you obtained from experiment and its analysis. In the conclusion, restate the data that you gathered from the experiment. Include the final data acquired from the analysis only. Additionally, provide an explanation of the final data and what it means in a brief manner. Explain data trends while noting whether there were irregularities indicated by the results raising further questions. Additionally, make sure that your conclusion indicates possible causes of errors.
- Have you stated whether your experiment answered the question successfully?
In the conclusion, you should examine data from the experiment on the basis of your predictions and goals of the experiment. Tell readers whether the experiment answered the question that you stated in the introduction. If it answered the question successfully, tell readers so. If it did not, explain the possible reasons or explanation for this while suggesting methods that can be used in future experiments. However, whether the experiment answered the question successfully or not, tell readers what you learned from it while stating the experiment’s results predictions that turned out to be true.
Your answers to these questions will enable you to determine if the conclusion of your lab report serves its purpose effectively.
Additional tips on how to write a conclusion for a lab report
- Maintain the accurate length for your conclusion for a lab report
The conclusion of a lab report can be long or short depending on the nature of the lab experiment and what you learned or deduced from it. Its length can also be determined by the prompt or what you were required or wanted to accomplish during the experiment. Thus, it can be a one sentence conclusion or a paragraph conclusion. There are also cases where it can be longer than one paragraph. Therefore, make sure that your conclusion has an accurate length that includes relevant information only.
- Identify the most important aspect of the result from the experiment
The main interpretation of the results should be based on the single most vital result of the experiment. Make sure that your conclusion presents the analysis of this result as well as its implication.
- How data was obtained
Remember that your conclusion is based on the data that you obtained while conducting the experiment and its analysis. It is therefore important that you tell readers how you obtained data so that they can determine if your data is reliable and whether your interpretation, analysis and conclusions are based on solid evidence.
- Implications
The conclusion is the last part of the lab report where you should tell readers what the results of the experiment mean and their implications to the real world. Therefore, make sure that your conclusion leaves readers with something to think about. Stating the implications of the findings of your lab experiment also shows that the experiment was necessary.
- Edit the conclusion of your lab report
After writing the conclusion for your lab report, ask a friend that you trust to edit it for you or enlist our editing service. You may have a good conclusion for a lab report but spelling and grammatical errors ruin it.
- Double-check results
It is important that you take time to double-check all results from the mathematical equations that you presented in the body. This will enable you to avoid the embarrassment which may arise from misplacing decimal points.
- Use a conclusion sample to easily know how to write a conclusion for a lab
You should also use a conclusion sample while mastering the steps of writing a lab conclusion.
Here is a lab report conclusion sample that you can use:
The purpose of this experiment was to find out how the concentration of nitrogen fertilizer affects com plants’ growth by comparing com plants’ growth when subjected to nitrogen fertilizer with different concentrations. The hypothesis was that the concentration of nitrogenous fertilizer does not affect the height of plant but the experiment did not support it. There was a significant variation in the height of the non-fertilized plants and fertilized plants with the average height increasing more in fertilized plants. The experiment was done in a classroom in which there was no constant temperature. Perhaps, this may have caused some errors in the results. Future experiments can be improved by conducting the experiment in a place with constant temperature.
With such a sample, knowing how to write a conclusion for a lab report is easy. This is because it enables you to know how and where to place different elements of a conclusion for a lab report.
Get online help with a lab report
If you face difficulties while writing a conclusion for a lab report, read these guidelines on how to write a conclusion for a lab report and then write your conclusion. Once done, contact us for professional editing help. Alternatively, visit our homepage for more details about our writing services and information on how we may help you. You can also keep reading for more academic writing guidelines and sample papers on our blog.
Sources
http://www.mifami.org/WAC/7-Conclusions.htm
https://www.umuc.edu/writingcenter/writingresources/conclude.cfm
http://www.ehow.com/how_5838573_write-lab-report-conclusion.html