This section presents the observations and experimental data obtained during the study. Understand that most readers do not wish to see others’ raw data. A more effective means of communicating experimental findings is to summarize raw data using descriptive statistics in combination with appropriate tables and/or figures. This permits the reader to easily interpret and compare experimental results. When raw data are provided they are usually relegated to an appendix, thereby making the data available to those readers who wish to see or use the data, but without distracting from the presentation of experimental results. I will insist that you NEVER present raw data as results. Rather, you will be expected to develop appropriate tables and figures to summarize and compare your experimental results. On certain occasions, you will be asked to include your raw data as an appendix.
The results section is not merely a collection of tables, figures and graphs. It includes a narrative. Use this narrative to clearly and concisely indicate those trends, relationships or differences in your data that are most important with regard to your stated objectives or hypotheses. As with the Introduction and Methods, be sure to write in the past tense.
Do not be vague. Avoid the temptation to simply state, “such and such data are presented in Table 1,” or “Figure 2 shows the such and such trends over time.” Rather, your narrative should clearly state experimental trends or differences between treatments that you want the reader to observe. Make parenthetical references to the tables and figures to support your statements.
For instance, explain the direction and magnitude of differences that you describe. Do not merely say “Predation rates differed between the treatments.” Rather, explain that “the predation rates were 3-times greater in the control than in the exclosure treatment.”
Similarly, do not simply say: “Table 2 presents the relationship between lake acidification and algal biomass.” Rather, employ your data to state: “The acidified lakes averaged 22% less algal biomass per volume (78 mg/L) than the well-buffered lakes (100 mg/L) (see Table 2).”
Furthermore, build in concise reporting of the variation associated with average values. For instance it would be proper to build on the example above by saying “The algal biomass of acidified lakes averaged (± 1 SD) 78 ±5 mg/L, which was 22% less than the average biomass of well-buffered lakes (100 ± 8 mg/L) (see Table 2).”
WHEN WRITING THE RESULTS SECTION, REMEMBER:
Results are often a short paragraph. Do not draw conclusions - that is meant for the discussion.
If applicable: Need statistical analysis + what these results mean. Mention sample size (n)
Figures preferred over tables, but this may depend on the study.
Figure numbers should be in text based on when they are mentioned. So Figure 1 needs to be the first figure discussed.
ALL FIGURES NEED CAPTIONS; They need to be specific. If the figure was found by itself on the street, someone should be able to understand what happened just by looking at the figure and caption.
No figure titles - all descriptive information should be in the caption.
The safest practice would be to put tables and figures on separate pages (not embedded in text), but encourage the student to ask their TA about formatting tables and figures. Some may prefer tables and figures to be Each table and figure should be printed on a separate page (see Table 4.1; Figure 4.1). Others may ask that figures be embedded in text following the paragraph where they were first mentioned. Do not embed tables and figures within your text.
Standard deviation should be mentioned if multiple measurements were collected that were summarized into one data point. Encouraged to interpret in the captions. (Examples of figures in lab manual).
for EFB 102 lab report #1 there will be two figures made for the report, one geared towards each hypothesis (one for diversity and one for the assigned factor)
sample size (n=#) and standard deviation should be mentioned in figure caption
Number the tables and figures sequentially in the order that they are referenced in the narrative. Place tables and figures on the page immediately following that where they were first referenced.
Each figure and table should contain a caption that is descriptive enough to allow someone to understand the contents of the table/figure. Captions do not explain trends in the data; they simply state what the data represent. Captions should contain enough information for the table/figure to “stand alone.” That is, if you were to drop a page with your figure/table on the ground and someone picked it up and read it, they should be able to know what was being described in that figure/table without needing the rest of your report. Be sure to label all figure axes and include units for all data.