Laboratory Reports

1. Laboratory reports will be due at each lab meeting. Work that was performed the previous lab meeting is to be documented and turned in the following week at the beginning of the lab period.
2. Late reports will have points deducted at a rate of 5% per weekday. A report will be considered one day late if it is handed in after the lab has started.
3. All labs must be performed and all lab reports must be turned in to pass the course. This includes reports which are so late that they will be counted as an automatic zero.
4. While laboratory exercises are performed in pairs, lab reports are to be written on an individual basis. The lab report turned in by each student must be entirely their own work. In addition, each student is required to write the statement, ``I have neither received nor provided any help on the writing of this lab report," and sign their name beneath.

While content is clearly the primary objective, neatness and organization will be weighted significantly in the grading of your lab reports. It is not required, but strongly recommended, that you type your lab reports (using the word processor of your choice). Extra credit (up to 10 points) will be given for lab reports produced using LaTeX.

Circuit diagrams may be hand-drawn, but wires should be drawn using a straight edge. Use standard size paper with clean edges (ie. not ripped out of a spiral notebook). Write on one side only. A good laboratory report is concise while providing enough detail such that another person could reproduce the results. Another person should be able to read your lab reports and know what you did and how you did it. Use the following guide for your report presentation.

1. Title: Provide the title of the lab exercise along with your name, partners name, and date the exercise was performed.
2. Abstract: Provide a paragraph which summarizes the objective, results and conclusions of the laboratory exercise.
3. Measurements: You will be required to make various measurements. Always draw the circuit diagram and state what you measured (with what instrument) along with the values measured. In certain cases you will be comparing theoretical values with those measured, or two different measurements of the same quantity. Show all calculations. Most measurements will contain some error (difference between theoretical and measured values). Always calculate percent error and then describe possible or known sources of the error. An error percentage of 5% is not uncommon. If the percent error is less than 5%, consider the theory and measurements to coincide. If the error percentage is greater than 5%, it is very likely that something has not been accounted for in the theory or a measurement was not performed properly. Present theoretical values, measured values, and percent error in the form of a table.
4. Simulation Results See PSpice Results Presentation below.
5. Conclusion: In this section you are to state whether the objectives of the lab were met. Were there any errors in measurements that you could not account for? What changes in the lab exercise would you suggest? Please explain and provide justification.

Your lab reports should not contain the degree of detail as present in the lab manual. Try to keep you reports as concise as possible without deleting essential information. Provide minimum procedure statements (eg. ``We obtained four 22 nF capacitors.") You may assume that the reader has knowledge and proficiency in the use of the lab instruments. Writing of the lab reports is not intended to be ``busy work" in which you simply rephrase what is in the lab manual. You should provide comments and observations to indicate your understanding.

There are examples of lab reports (graded) available for you to examine on the shelf in the copyroom of Teer Library.