Here are some tips for setting out your lab books neatly:

Method

  • Stick in your (annotated) practical sheet on the next blank page.
  • Add the date and a title top the top of the lab book page, if ether is not evident on the top of the worksheet.
  • Annotations might include things you have highlighted which are important, measurements or notes you have added from the teacher tips, any steps you have added or adapted or altered to improve the practical as you went along.
  • You might need to include a diagram of your apparatus, if so it should be drawn in sharp HB pencil, using a ruler where appropriate, and labelled in ink, with pencil label lines to the side of the diagram. 
  • If you have been asked to plan your own method, include any risk assessment here, including steps you will be taking to mitigate those risk take during the experiment.
Results
  • Fill in any answers, observations or data into relevant spaces on the worksheet and/or
  • Include a table of results or table of observations depending on the activity below the worksheet.
  • Consider the header row of your table, and appropriate units, use a ruler and pencil for the table lines.
  • Stick in any graphs so they occupy a whole page and so that the points occupy at least half of the page along both axes. Give your graph a title and label each axis with its variable and relevant units. Add a best fit line if appropriate and circle any anomalies. Include a key if there is more than one data set.
  • Carry out any calculations and remember to set them out neatly using words and equations to explain the steps in your working. Don't forget sign and units.
Conclusion & Evaluation
  • Answer any questions from the practical sheet
  • And/or include a relevant conclusion or evaluation from the practical if appropriate.

References

  • If you have been asked to plan your own experiment, include details of references you have used at the end.

Index

  • Go back to the index page at the front of the book, add the title of the experiment, the date that you first began the practical and the page number the write up begins on to the next row of the table.

Keeping this process up to date as you go along will mean you can then start the write up for the next practical on the next blank page. Without needing to guess how many pages you need to leave blank for the write up before hand.