Please read the formal report for information pertinent to the preparation of all types of laboratory reports.  The short report is a shorter version of the formal report; however, you should follow the same rules in the preparation of  this shorter version.  It simply has less sections.

In a brief format you will provide your laboratory reports in an abbreviated standard journal format with introduction, results and discussion sections. Your report should contain 2+ pages of text (1+  page introduction; 1+ page discussion).  Your total report including results, figures, tables, references will be longer than 2 pages.
Divide your report into sections as follows:

Introduction
Results
Discussion
References

Please utilize current ACS journals as models for the type of report submitted.  General notes on ACS writing style

The introduction should indicate the relevance of and theory behind the work. It should include your statement of purpose.  The introduction should be brief and include background information concerning your synthesis or laboratory work. In addition, it is helpful to relate your work to the work of others or indicate its relevance to the field of science where applicable. Information included in the introduction should be the theoretical reactions/pathways/results which you expect to occur and an explanation of why you have those expectations.  Explanations for observed expected or unexpected data should be included in the discussion section.   The introduction should be approximately one page of text (w/o figures).  Figures, schemes, tables, etc. do not count towards length.

Your results section should contain the results of your experiment. Herein you should report your yields, spectra, and any other relevant data. The results section does not contain comment. (Please include copies of spectra and present the relevant spectral information in table form). The discussion of your results is included in the next section, the discussion section. Inclusion of data in tabular or graphical form is appropriate and preferable. Label your tables and figures using table 1 or figure 1 nomenclature and refer to them in the discussion using this nomenclature. Provide good figure captions.  Text in figure captions does not count towards length and should be explanatory and may include method information.. Refer to your tables or figures using the table/figure nomenclature within the text. You may also label structures with difficult or large names numerically and refer to them as compound 1, etc.  There should be approxiamately 1/2 to 1 page of text along with the figures the text will often repeat the figure legends this is appropriate.

The discussion section should include a brief description of successful and unsuccessful efforts. Do not include trivial information or opinions "this lab was difficult, I liked this lab etc.".  Do not include procedure unless it impacts the results.  The discussion should also illuminate why certain methods were chosen rather than other methods which might accomplish the same task, where appropriate. The discussion section is where you postulate about what went wrong or right and also what you would change if the experiment were repeated only if the changes would produce a significantly different result. However, a one sentence discussion such as - the experiment went as expected - is not sufficient. In the discussion section  is especially important to relate the results of your experiment to the theoretical information presented in the introduction. This section should be approximately 1 page (w/o structures, figures, tables etc.)

It will be difficult to keep the report to the 2  pages of written text. One goal of this type of writing is to determine how to accurately and succinctly present your results. You will be unable to re-state the same information a dozen times.  Therefore, it is important that you present the material clearly the first time.

No handwritten laboratory reports will be accepted!