Computer Science Lab Report Analysis 

 

Ferdus Rifa 

City College of New York 

Writing for Engineering 

Professor Sara Jacobson 

March 20, 2023 

  

A lab report is a written record of an experiment and what was observed during the entire process. Different people use different styles while writing a lab report. A lab report’s main goals are to describe exactly what happened in an experiment by displaying information, to discuss the results, and to provide conclusions. Lab reports need enough clarity, as it is necessary for readers to be engaged and completely understand new material. According to chapter 19 of “Technical Communication,” lab reports are important to replicate studies and test hypotheses that have already been replicated and tested. Lab reports have eight basic elements which are title, abstract, introduction, material and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and reference. All these elements are so much important to build a well-structured lab report. A well-structured laboratory report is far more powerful and persuasive than one that lacks structure. Also, all these elements assist the readers in finding and understanding the report’s content. Now, I will be analyzing two lab reports based on my academic interest and major which is computer science. And discuss how these reports connect with the basic elements of lab reports. 

First, I will analyze the titles of these lab reports which is one of the most important parts to focus on. I think both of the titles cover the main focus of their research and are excellent indicators of what the rest of the report will address. Different lab reports have different purposes to show the audience. The title of the first lab report is, “Measuring the Effectiveness of Robots in Teaching Computer Science.” This is a clear and understandable title to the readers. By reading we all understand that it is going to be an experiment about comparison or pros and cons about the main subject. The title of the second lab report is, “Why Students with an Apparent Aptitude for Computer Science Don’t Choose to Major in Computer Science.” It is a bit longer title, and the words could be changed a little bit to make it easy to read, but the main idea of the report is reflected clearly in the title. I believe these titles are informative enough to grab readers’ interest as they show a clear picture of the purpose of the reports.  

Next, I will be analyzing the abstract section of the lab reports which describes the full report’s structure: introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. Mainly it is the brief summary of the whole report. The abstracts of both reports are quite similar according to their format. The purpose of the study has been stated here and both lab reports used the standard form of abstract which gives the readers a brief overview about the experiment and result. They also included the keywords at the end of the abstract. The way they presented the abstract made the report easier. It also gives an idea of the results. Basically, the abstract parts of the two reports achieved their goal by offering background information to support the lab’s purpose and providing insight into the lab, effectively describing it.  

Now I am moving to the introduction part of the reports. The introduction is the element of the report in which the researcher attempts to demonstrate the significance of their work. The first lab report, “Measuring the Effectiveness of Robots in Teaching Computer Science,” included the background information in the introduction and the researchers also included the next steps of the experiment. In the introduction of the second report, “Why Students with an Apparent Aptitude for Computer Science Don’t Choose to Major in Computer Science,” they included some important hypotheses by observing a lot of previous evidence and information. For example, it states in the report that, “Another hypothesis, based on anecdotal evidence seen at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU), is that students, male or female, don’t pursue education in computing fields because they either have no information or incorrect information about what the study of computing involves and what sorts of careers are available to computing professionals.” All this evidence and hypothesis helps readers to understand the experiment and why this experiment is necessary to be performed. The background is described in a separate paragraph which makes it easy to find out information. Also, at the end of the introduction they included what will be the next sections of the report, which makes it easier for the readers to understand. I think the introduction of the second report is more informative. But overall, both of the reports explained the background and the purpose really well. They provide enough details to make the reports understandable.  

Next, I will be analyzing the material and method section of the reports which is the most important part to persuade the readers that the research was appropriate for the subject they wanted to solve, their research or experiment was properly done, and the results are trustworthy. The lab reports were written in the same order as a usual lab report, with the method described after the introduction. Also, they used visuals well to make the concept clear to the readers. In the first lab report, they used basic parameters of study and some testing and assessment methods as the proof of their research. Though they described it in a detailed way, according to me it is kind of confusing. I think it should be labeled in a proper way that the readers can find out easily. In the second lab report, they used a survey as their experimental method. Also, they described the participants and the organizing pattern of the survey in different paragraphs. Which makes it easy to understand the experiment. Both the method’s parts are incredibly detailed but the second one is more organized compared to the first one.  

Now, I am moving to the result part of the lab reports. The results display the information gathered or discovered throughout the experiment. It is the section where the researchers explain the data collected during the experiment. It includes graphs, charts, and figures as well to make it more clear. The first lab report included the experimental data and results into the analysis section. They explained the data and results in different sections in an incredibly detailed way. In the second lab report, they labeled the section as ‘result’ which will be easy to find out and they included the main point of the result section into the first line and then they broadly explained the whole thing part by part. They also used a lot of charts to make it more understandable. The graphics were followed with descriptions and data from the experiment, and the whole thing was rounded off with an analysis of all of the data acquired from the experiments. This result section is structured really well. For the most part, the second report did an excellent job of displaying and explaining the results. 

After the result section I will be analyzing the discussion part. One of the most significant aspects of the lab report is the discussion section. It evaluates the experiment’s results and discusses the data. Explains why any unexpected results occurred and how they affected or did not affect the data acquired. In the first lab report the conclusion and the discussion parts are together in one paragraph. But in the second lab report they labeled the discussion section as implication in a separate paragraph. According to the result of the experiment, they explained what needs to be done in order to solve this issue.  

Then, I will analyze the conclusion part of the reports. The conclusion of a lab report summarizes the whole lab report by reviewing data and completing the lab. Both labs appear to have handled this aspect fairly effectively. The conclusions of the lab reports are effective at bringing up topics that could stimulate future research and closing the report, which is what they are intended to do. The conclusions summarized the entire labs perfectly to prove the significance of the experiments. The first lab report concluded the experiment in a detailed way and also discussed the future works about that issue as well. In the second lab report, the conclusion is short and directly indicates the main reason behind the issue.  

The last part of a lab report is a citation of references. Any outside sources used to support a claim or clarify background information must be referenced in the lab report’s references section. There is proper use of references in the lab reports. All the references they used during the whole research are listed at the end of the report.  

After reviewing the lab reports, I concluded that the second lab report, “Why Students with an Apparent Aptitude for Computer Science Don’t Choose to Major in Computer Science” has the clearest organizational pattern. This lab report has all the components that a proper lab report should include. It included all the stages of a lab report properly. It was beautifully put up and does a good job of providing facts about an experiment in such a way that a reader can understand the experiment really well. 

 

Work Cited 

Markel, M., & Selber, S. A. (2020). Technical Communication (13th ed.). Macmillan Higher Education. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781319307691 

Barry Fagin, & Laurence Merkle. (2003). Measuring the effectiveness of robots in teaching computer science. SIGCSE Bull. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1145/792548.611994 

Lori Carter. (2006) Why Students with an Apparent Aptitude for Computer Science Don’t Choose to Major in Computer Science. Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1145/1953163.1953317  

  

Self-Reflection: Lab Report Analysis 

It is the second writing assignment of this course which is “Lab Report Analysis.” It is about analyzing, and annotation two lab reports related to my own major or academic interests. My intended major is computer science. So, I searched for computer science-based lab reports from CCNY (City College of New York) library database. I found some lab reports and chose two of them which seemed interesting to me. These lab reports focus on some critical issues in this (computer science) field. The assignment required us to annotate the reports and split each lab report into sections and evaluate how they effectively organize their information so that the reader can understand and apply their findings easily. It was about comparing and contrasting the lab reports with each of the basic elements of a perfect lab report. I did this by referencing chapter 19 of textbook (Technical Communication) and determining what each section of a lab report should include. First, I annotated and made notes on each of the lab reports. Then for drafting the essay, I included an introduction first and then analyzed and described each of the elements of the lab reports in different paragraphs or sections. In the end I added a conclusion according to my perspective. This was my first assignment in APA format. Because in my previous course I used to work with MLA format. So, I was little confused about this. After completing my first draft, the peer review also helped me. By this I got to know some of my major mistakes. I tried to work on them and make my final draft more precise. This study, I believe, was great practice not just for writing and analyzing, but also for researching. This report’s research nature benefited me in strengthening my research strategies. I can now quickly study a lab report and find out the information I need easily, as well as judge whether a report is useful for my research. It gave a brief idea about what a lab report should look like.