Background for a chemistry lab report?

[abercrombiedude18]

Unsure how to start off. My professor listed some general dentitions for the introduction but I am unsure how to start anyone want to throwout some advice, thanks a bunch

[Brian H]

Generally, you want to start off with an Abstract, or Introduction, which is a general scope of the usefulness of the experiment, or a general statement on how you did it. Do not get too specific. (For eg. Aspirin is a common pain reliever. It reacts with such and such ..... to relieve pain. It can be synthesized from....) Make sure this is in third person. Also, it is best to write a chemical reaction for the experiment in the abstract.

The next part should be the experimental procedure. State, in a passive third person voice, what YOU did in the experiment.

The next part should be your data and results. Generally, most professors want a table of your data and calculations here. You may want to add standard deviation when averaging data from a series of trials. Don't forget to keep track of your sig figs and units!...

The most challenging part, and probably, where the professor will look most closely at, is the Conclusions section. This part should state your results in a concise manner. you should start off by stating the goal of your experiment. (For eg. The goal of this experiment is to synthesize aspirin and find the percent yield and the melting point of the synthesized acetylsalicylic acid.) And then, you should state the results. (My percent yield was 88.4% and the melting point was 140.7 degrees Celsius.) You may also want to talk about accuracy and precision, and what might've went wrong, depending on the experiment.

Of course, if the professor asks you to answer questions and such, be sure to do so.... lol.