Writing and Evaluating the Laboratory Report

All too often the time-consuming duties of classroom instruction cause laboratory evaluation to take on a minor role. Publishers also have added to this dilemma by burgeoning the market with fill-in-the-blank type laboratory manuals. This paper shows how proper orientation of the student in his laboratory reporting encourages communication skills that include the ability to interpret, analyze, and transmit facts and ideas graphically and in writing. A cognitive approach to the evaluation of these communicative skills may not eliminate paper grading but it will do much toward making it briefer and more productive