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 using the AsciiDoc lightweight markup language. Use this simple AsciiDoc example as a starting point for your report: labreport_example.txt. From the AsciiDoc source, an HTML document must be produced. The following HTML document was generated from the previous example file: labreport_example.html.
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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 not necessarily the clearest way to present your 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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Always use complete sentences, with proper grammar and spelling.
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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 function, class or 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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Structure your lab report in a logical way, with each section marked with a helpful title. "Part 3" is not helpful, whereas "Conclusions" is.
Based on: Suggestions for clear lab reports in computer science courses.
