Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Turnitin.com

You will need to check your TASIS email for the class ID and password to join turnitin.com.

You can read a sample lab report here. NOTE: The discussion in that sample lab report is not long enough. It's only a little bit more than half a page, with 1.5 spacing. Your discussion needs to be an entire page.

In case you forgot to read what a discussion should include, read the excerpt from the Colby College Guide to Writing Scientific Papers, below.

Here, the researcher interprets the data in terms of any patterns that were observed, any relationships among experimental variables that are important and any correlations between variables that are discernible. The author should include any explanations of how the results differed from those hypothesized, or how the results were either different from or similar to those of any related experiments performed by other researchers. Remember that experiments do not always need to show major differences or trends to be important. "Negative" results also need to be explained and may represent something important--perhaps a new or changed focus for your research.

A useful strategy in discussing your experiment is to relate your specific results back to the broad theoretical context presented in the Introduction. Since your Introduction went from the general to a specific question, going from the specific back to the general will help to tie your ideas and arguments together.

Remember that your discussion should have a title that follows the guidelines we talked about in class. I don't want to read anything titled "Salty Pea Lab."

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