Lab Reports
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Although the lab activities can be carried out in pairs, the lab reports must be developed individually. All lab reports must be written in Spanish or English using the LaTeX typesetting system. Use this simple LaTeX example as a starting point for your report: labreport_example.tex. From the LaTeX source, a PDF must be produced. The following PDF was generated from the previous example file: labreport_example.pdf
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Your lab report should be presented in a self-contained manner, and summarize what you accomplished, what conclusions you drew and why. The lab assignments have steps which are chronologically ordered to indicate the recommended way to accomplish the tasks for the lab, but this is usually not the clearest way to present most reports. Instead, you should break up your report into logical pieces, and tie the pieces together with an introduction, conclusion, and other helpful comments.
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Assume the audience includes people who have taken a similar course but somewhere else. So they haven't read the book, nor have they read the lab description. Your introduction should explain why they should read your report and give a roadmap explaining its structure. Your conclusion should summarize what the reader should have learned.
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If somebody helped you during the lab or when writing your report, make sure to include her or his name in the acknowledgment section. Make sure to include in this section your lab partner's name as well.
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It is your responsibility to test your code thoroughly as you write each class and method, and to convince the reader that you know all your code works. If your code has a bug, report the bug and explain your testing and what you know about where the bug is in your program. If you fail to report a bug, it will be assumed that you either (a) tested poorly or (b) were dishonest in your report. Either way, your grade will be more severely reduced than if you just report your bug.
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Always use complete sentences, with proper grammar and spelling.
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Structure your lab report in a logical way, with each section marked with a helpful title. "Part 3" is not helpful, whereas "Conclusions" is.
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If small changes are made to large blocks of code, use a different font (italic or bold) to highlight your changes.
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Use a
fixed-width character font for your code so that the indentation and columns line up properly.
Based on: Suggestions for clear lab reports in computer science courses.
