I am behind on grading lab reports (and everything else) you may have noticed. What I can say is that all the reports I've gotten so far have been excellent, and you have no need to worry. I doubt any of them is below a mid B, so keep doing what you're doing ...
Some guidelines on the expectations. For the ~60min labs we do, I would expect a report of ~5 pages including a reasonable number of figures. Length is not as critical as completeness: if you can be concise, that is not a problem. I'd expect the following sections, with weighting for grading noted:
Theory & motivation 30%
Methods & data 40%
Analysis, discussion, conclusions 20%
Presentation & style 10%
Theory and motivation means why are you doing this experiment (what will you try to learn), and how did you model/analyze your setup mathematically. Methods and data means describing what you did and reporting raw data with some estimation of uncertainty (even if the uncertainty is only noted qualitatively). Analysis, discussion, and conclusions means extracting interesting parameters from your data, comparing them with the model you proposed in the first section, and discussing the implications for the model you used (is it right, within what accuracy?). Style is just what it sounds like ... that's grammar, formatting, quality of writing, and the rest of it.
Basically, what you have been doing is fine so far. Hopefully this will help you write up the remaining experiments.
Last: lab reports are due at the end of the semester before the final examination period.
Some guidelines on the expectations. For the ~60min labs we do, I would expect a report of ~5 pages including a reasonable number of figures. Length is not as critical as completeness: if you can be concise, that is not a problem. I'd expect the following sections, with weighting for grading noted:
Theory & motivation 30%
Methods & data 40%
Analysis, discussion, conclusions 20%
Presentation & style 10%
Theory and motivation means why are you doing this experiment (what will you try to learn), and how did you model/analyze your setup mathematically. Methods and data means describing what you did and reporting raw data with some estimation of uncertainty (even if the uncertainty is only noted qualitatively). Analysis, discussion, and conclusions means extracting interesting parameters from your data, comparing them with the model you proposed in the first section, and discussing the implications for the model you used (is it right, within what accuracy?). Style is just what it sounds like ... that's grammar, formatting, quality of writing, and the rest of it.
Basically, what you have been doing is fine so far. Hopefully this will help you write up the remaining experiments.
Last: lab reports are due at the end of the semester before the final examination period.
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