Scientific Report Rubric

Basic Check List

A. Remember: precise word use, past tense, active voice, brevity, and 1st person.

B. Use Active Verbs: Use active verbs whenever possible; writing that overly uses passive verbs (is, was, has, have, had) is deadly to read and almost always results in more words than necessary to say the same thing.

ACTIVE: "the mouse consumed oxygen at a higher rate..."

PASSIVE: "oxygen was consumed by the mouse at a higher rate.."

C. Do not use abbreviations in the text except for units of measure.

D. Check your grammar, word use, and spelling

1. Title

Write a title that captures what is important about the study.  This title would actually be used if you were to publish your work.  Titles are oddly complete.  Using the legume example the title for that study might be - Total biomass growth of soy beans in Scriven County, Georgia using native rhizobium and non-native rhizobium.

Competitive feeding behaviours in captive Terrapene c. carolina

Population Structure and Behavioral Ecology of Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene c. carolina) in a Fragmented Habitat in South Carolina

2. Abstract

    A. What are the objectives of the study?

    B. How was the study done?

    C. What results were obtained?

    D. What is the significance of the results?

Frequently, readers of a scientific journal will only read the abstract, choosing to read at length those papers that are most interesting to them. This section should be written carefully and succinctly to have the greatest impact in as few words as possible.

Although it appears as the first section in a paper, most scientists write the abstract section last.

3. Introduction

A. Why is this study of scientific interest and what is your objective?

This section discusses the results and conclusions of previously published studies, to help explain why the current study is of scientific interest. The Introduction is organized to move from general information to specific information.  This background must be summarized succinctly, but it should not be itemized. Take care not to go too far afield in providing background information; limit the introduction to studies that relate directly to the present study. Emphasize your specific contribution to the topic.

The last sentences of the introduction should be a statement of objectives and a statement of hypotheses.  This will be a good transition to the next section, methods, in which you will explain how you proceeded to meet your objectives and test your hypotheses. 

4. Materials & Methods

Describe in a paragraph form the methods and equipment you used.  Be sure to include enough detail about the materials and methods you used so that someone else could repeat your experiment as you performed it.  You do not need to explain telemetry.  Assume a certain base of knowledge by your readers. 

5. Results

This section presents the results of the experiment but does not attempt to interpret their meaning. Create appropriate tables, graphs, charts that allow you to visually represent your data.

In a paragraph form summarize the results from this lab.  Remember that the results section only reports and describes what you observed and collected during your lab.  The results section does not explain, discuss, or draw conclusions.

6. Tables and Graphs

Self explanatory – label and number graphs so that they can be referenced in results and discussion.

7. Discussion

In this section, you are free to explain what the results mean or why they differ from what other researchers have found. You should interpret your results in light of other published results, by adding additional information from sources you cited in the introduction section as well as by introducing new sources. Make sure you provide accurate citations. 

8. Literature Cited

Cite 10 sources minimum.  This should include professional research, magazines, books, web pages, and other.  All references in your paper should correspond with citations found here.