Chemistry; Tips on writing up practicals? (1 Viewer)

[beve]

Aiight; so i'm really trying to lift my game in this subject because i've realised that it's actually coming easily to me. My weakness lies in writing up practicals; any tips that people can offer? Detail is good... *puppy dog eyes...*

lol.

 

[gurmies]

In any practical, I suggest you write out the following (in that order)

Aim: (Usually what you intend to gather from the experiment)

Equipment (What exactly it is you will use and amounts i.e. moles etc.)

Method (How you carried out the experiment. Remember to write this in third person past tense. For instance, "The bunsen burner was lit" or "10 ml's of Hydrochloric Acid (1 Mol) was added to the solution"

Organise your first-hand collected data in the most appropriate way. Generally tables are used, as they are concise and easy to read means of communicating information. Don't forget to include the units u are dealing with (lost so many damn marks forgetting this fundamental).

Usually questions accompany practicals. Answer them following the results. If not, proceed to a small section adressing any safety issues encountered, and how they were prevented.

Now, the final part, if you are required to do a conclusion, be sure to do JUST that. Only a month ago, I had a prac that was counted as an assessment and I wrote 1 page for the conclusion including how to improve accuracy and reliability. However that sort of stuff genreally goes in a "discussion" In a conclusion virtually answer the aim. About 2 paragraphs should do the trick

 

[Cerry]

Your write up should go something like this

Aim: What you intend to find out in the experiment (eg, To observe the reaction between HCl and various metals)

Method: How to carry out the experiment (I tend to write instructions, but others write a past tense of what they did. Both are acceptable). If you write precise instructions, such as "Place 6 drops 0.2 mol/L HCl in a 250 mL beaker", you can skip the equipment step.

Results: Use a table, if it's appropriate. And write down everything that you observe (bubbling, smoking, beaker warmed up, produced really bad smell etc), because observations will almost always be worth some marks.

Discussion: This is sometimes optional. But it should include things like ways that the prac could be improved; justifying things that you've done (equipment you've used, why you did things in a certain order), should you feel the need; the validity of the experiment. Risk assessments go here too.

Conclusion: Basically, you say that you've achieved your aim. Sometimes only one setence is necessary (we did one the other day where the conclusion was "We produced esters by combining an alkanol with an alkanoic acid"), but other times, you might need a couple of paragraphs. Depends on how complex your aim was.

Basically, make sure you write down everything, as precisly as possible, and you should be fine. And if you can get a diagram in somewhere, do it. Chem teachers love diagrams

 

[bored of sc]

As above.

But when revising them try using the following:

1. Title (aim/heading)

2. Key points of Method and Labelled diagram

3. Justification of prodecure (i.e. why the experiment is decent (could refer to accuracy, reliability and validity).

4. Risks associated with the experiment.

5. Controls (if applicable).

6. Results/observations

7. Conclusion

8. Issues of reliability.

9. Improvements to method and apparatus.

 

[selablad]

Conclusion: Basically, you say that you've achieved your aim. Sometimes only one setence is necessary (we did one the other day where the conclusion was "We produced esters by combining an alkanol with an alkanoic acid"), but other times, you might need a couple of paragraphs. Depends on how complex your aim was.

I thought you were supposed to only use third person/past tense in experiment write-ups?

Off-topic, but one of my science teachers was telling us about her PhD the other day. Apparently in the whole thing (ie 100 000 words or so) her conclusion was only one paragraph long

 

[bored of sc]

I once got tricked when the question only asked for the method of an experiment, and not the rest of it....and i did all of it....stupid me

Last year's science SC test? I did the same thing !

 

[beve]

Thank y'all.

 

[Cerry]

I thought you were supposed to only use third person/past tense in experiment write-ups?

Off-topic, but one of my science teachers was telling us about her PhD the other day. Apparently in the whole thing (ie 100 000 words or so) her conclusion was only one paragraph long

I think it's one of those things that depends on who's taught you how to write up pracs. I tend to try and avoid doing it, but obviously, as my last post demonstrated, it happens from time to time. You're certainly not supposed to use we/I/you etc in the method, but the conclusions tend to be slightly different.
You'll have to excuse me if that's totally wrong/incomprehensible, I'm in hour 3 or 4 of an argument with my new MP3 player, and it's late.

 

[bayan92]

you have to write a report as if you are talking to someone who knows nothing.

Structure:

1. Write dot point
2. Title
3. Aim
4. Introduction - paragraph or two on the relating theory dotpoint
5. Risk Assessment - Tabulate it have substance/item, its risks and management
6. Hypothesis - what you think gonna happen
7. Materials
8. Method
9. Result
10. Diagram/Set up if neccessary
11. Discussion - why your results where what they were
12. Conclusion

follow these and youll get good marks.

i get a A - and over using these headings

CIAO

 

[Ryuu-jin-jakka]

Hey, my teacher is really strict on writing up prac report:mad1: and just wondered what the different between a 'hypothesis' and 'prediction' is, and how are you meant to write a proper discussion for a chemistry report because my teacher is making us write like essay ( (~ 2-3 pages :burn?

 

[Riproot]

you have to write a report as if you are talking to someone who knows nothing.

Structure:

1. Write dot point
2. Title
3. Aim
4. Introduction - paragraph or two on the relating theory dotpoint
5. Risk Assessment - Tabulate it have substance/item, its risks and management
6. Hypothesis - what you think gonna happen
7. Materials
8. Method
9. Result
10. Diagram/Set up if neccessary
11. Discussion - why your results where what they were
12. Conclusion

follow these and youll get good marks.

i get a A - and over using these headings

CIAO

well i guess they had lower standards back when u guys did it


also, this forum was like no help.

 

[freedragon]

is it wrong if all we do in chem class is pracs???....

...and the teacher tells us we should be summarriesing the textbook and learning the theory at home...................?????

 

[Riproot]

sorry my signature is screwed, was testing.
over 1000 thing. help?
also, yeah

 

[Riproot]

is it wrong if all we do in chem class is pracs???....

...and the teacher tells us we should be summarriesing the textbook and learning the theory at home...................?????

YES!!!
thats scary, especially with the subjects u r doing, how many hours of work do u get a night? (on average)