Format for Formal Laboratory Report

You will have to type your formal report. Use double spacing and an one-inch border. The final version has to be submitted in printed version to your instructor (YH1217) and an electronic version to www.turnitin.com (Class ID: 36469, Password: Chem30CL). Please try to use decent English e.g. avoid spelling errors. Do not copy paragraphs or sentences from publications without quotes. This is plagiarism and will not be tolerated. Plagiarism is a form of cheating and appropriately dealt with. Use your own words to explain the given information and reference it.

The following general divisions are suggested for your laboratory reports:

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Results/Discussion
4. Conclusion and Summary
5. Experimental section
6. Spectra section


Abstract

Look at it as an “advertisement” for your report. It usually consists of 4-6 lines. This is a good place to mention all the highlights of the paper to follow. The abstract summarizes the most important findings of your work. The abstract is usually the last part that you will write. It condenses the paper into two or three sentences. What are the most important findings of your work? What do you want to 'sell' with the paper?


Introduction

You will have to research an alternative method from the literature to synthesize the target compound in 3-5 steps. The best approach is a retro synthesis starting with the final product. This section is usually a couple of paragraphs or less. You also should research relevant background information on the final compound that demonstrates that you know how to find appropriate information for the primary literature. That’s where you need to use Scifinder 2001 or other programs. Compare the alternative synthesis with the one that you performed in teh lab. Where does either one have advantages. Where do you see problems for a student at your level?





Results/Discussion

This section should be the very detailed (~40-50% of your paper), showing the breadth and depth of your knowledge about the experiment and its related phenomena. You should give a reasonable detailed account of the synthetic work (e.g. yield, etc), as well as product purification, but not half of the experimental section. Any problems encountered, along with an educated guess as to why they occurred and possible solutions to the problem should be included. You might want to point out important points in your procedure e.g. why do you need a water-free environment? This section should also include a detailed analysis of all spectra including a comparison to literature values. It also allows the author to comment on the results with her/his own interpretations or comparisons to published values.

In summary, in the discussion section you should show/explain all of the following that are relevant:
- Chemical equations, structures, important parts of a mechanism (not the complete one)
- Analysis of spectra (here or in detail in its own section)
- Unexpected observations and proposed explanations
- Detailed discussion of the compounds interesting aspects and chemistry
- Observed properties of your materials and an intelligent comparison to literature values (do not forget to cite your references!)


Conclusion and summary

This section should include a very brief resume of the work mentioning all the observations (often tabulating data helps). Also comment on what you learned by carrying out this project, things like technique, instrumentation, and examples of practical knowledge and how they relate to the theoretical expectations you gained in other classes/labs/jobs.


Experimental

This is the most important part of the report. This is what you did! The format should be similar to that used in journals, i.e. Journal of the American Chemical Society. Give exact details of how you personally performed the experiment. Include quantities (in grams and moles) of reagents and any purification. Reaction conditions, experiment set-up, final yields, evidence of purity, (m.p., b.p., etc.) and describe final product appearance (crystallinity, color, shape, odor). This section should be a transcription of your lab notebook (you see now why a good lab notebook is important?), not a copy of the published procedure/lab manual, as you will invariably not be able to do everything exactly as the original authors did. This section must be representative of your work and not a copy from the procedure given in the lab manual or the original literature! Explanantions why you do things the way you do them belong into the discussion part!


Spectra section

Include copies of all spectra (IR, NMR, UV-VIS, MS, etc.) of the compounds you personally made or were handed out to you in this section. You should title and briefly annotate each spectrum. If you did not interpret them in detail in the discussion, then do it here (Hint: Which data do you have to get out of the H-NMR spectrum?). Do not include copies of any reference spectra you consulted (however, you will have to reference them). The characterization of the compounds is specified after the experimental instruction of each experiment.


Reference section

This section should show all the reference you cited in your report in the following form:

(#) Author(s) (last name, first initial, middle initial), journal title, year, volume, page.

e.g. Ruhlandt-Senge, K., Bacher, A.D., Mueller, U., Z. Naturforsch., 1992, B47, 31

If you make a crucial statement in your report, you need to support it by a reference from the literature. If it is a comment or suggestion somebody else made e.g. the TA or instructor, write

Personal Communication John Doe, unpublished

If you use web sites as references, you need to give the link and the date when you accessed them.

e.g. www.chem.ucla.edu/~bacher/general/30CL/hints/formalreport.html , accessed 9-30-2002

It will be very important later on e.g. publication, thesis, company reports, etc to support crucial statement by references in the literature. You will need to do literature research (e.g. Scifinder 2001, Melvyl, Orion) in order to find some related information from the literature. You are required to provide approximately at least 10 references (4-6 of them from original papers and/or spectra reference books).




General hints

1. The formal report will take significantly more time than a normal postlab report. Start early with your literature research, which should enable you to write an introduction early in the writing. If you are experiencing problems using the electronic resources, please ask your teaching assistant or instructor for assistance asp. Scifinder2000 is available in the SLC and in YH 6096.

2. The paper should be proof read by one of two of your fellow students, your teaching assistant or your instructor before you submit the final version. You should also proof read a few other papers in order to get ideas about how to improve your own paper. Other people tend to catch mistakes better than yourself. It is a long process to write a decent report, but you will need those skills when you move On to the upper division courses in your major. COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS IN WRITTEN AND ORAL FORM ARE VERY IMPORTANT FOR YOUR SUCCESS.

3. Chemists tend to use chemical equations to communicate. An equation sometimes tells more than a paragraph of written information. So, use them whenever it is appropriate. However, a chemical equation alone is not desirable either. Chemdraw (a drawing program) is also available on the computers in the SLC and in YH 6096.

4. Try to avoid spelling errors, especially when it comes to chemical nomenclature. It makes you look incompetent when it comes to chemistry. Mistakes in chemical formulas and structures are very bad as well.

5. Make sure that you have several copies of your report. Computers tend to crash.Viruses can make your report unreadable. Use a common word processing program like Word or Word Perfect, if possible. Late reports will receive less credit (10% OF TOTAL NUMBER OF POINTS POSSIBLE PER DAY LATE INCLUDING WEEKENDS!). Make sure that you budget your time properly.

6. It might be very helpful to go to the library and look at some journals to see how other authors structured their papers. It is also helpful to see which information they include into the report. Not every little detail belongs into the report that you write e.g. a spin bar was added. People who work in synthesis are well aware of the fact that you stir your mixture during the reaction.

7. Do not use “I”, “my”, “we”, “our”, etc in your report. A scientific report is written in the third person in passive form and for most parts in past tense. Try to be consistent in your report.

8. Pages, formulas and equations should be numbered. Numbers below thirteen are written in words if they are not accompanied by a unit.

9.The experimental part should contain the following information: appearance of teh product, yield in grams and percent (before and after recrystallization in integer)

10. The IR spectra interpretation should inlude a characterization of the peak intensity (weak, medium, strong, broad).

11. Presenting a table for your spectra data is not sufficient. You need to briefly comment on the mopst important feautes of the spectrum as well.

12. H-NMR data is usually report withg two decimal points e.g. 2.34 ppm, while C-NMR only is reported with one decimal point e.g. 128.4 ppm. You are not very likely to use TMS as an internal standard, so the scale is set based on your solvent signal as calibration point only.

13. Avoid slang terms like "get rid off" (=remove) or "right on target" (=correlates well). The proper use of '^oC" (not degree Celsius) and "mL" (not ml) is also advisable.

14. Try to use a concise style and do not tell a long story. If you write a paper about an experimental project, you should emphasize on the experimental issues and not on the details of the theory.

15. Present your results in a positive light even if not everything worked out well. Or in other words, don't complain about every little thing that didn't go perfectly during the in lab work.