Guidelines for Food Chemistry Laboratory

I. Individual Reports

Each student must submit an individual report. Collaboration is allowed as follows:

 Partners may discuss experiments, the results and what they may mean, and what
conclusions may be derived from them
 Partners may collaborate on data transformation to yield presentable formats (tables,
figures, etc.) -- FIGURES and TABLES may be identical for partners’ reports
 Partners may also share literature and direct each other of papers that may be relevant to
their project

However, EACH student must compose the report and the textual write-up independently

Another way to say this is that students may discuss individual elements of their project in
preparing to write the report, but each student must independently assemble and write the report

II. Report Format

The report MUST take the following structure:

 Title (and author) page

 Introduction (orienting function, 2-3 pp)
 Materials and Methods (how you did things) – use sub-sections
 Results (what you found) – use sub-sections
 General Discussion (what your finding mean)
 Conclusion (not a summary – rather IMPACT, or answering the “so what?” question)
 References
 Tables (w/legends)
 Figures (w/legends) – and other annotations like schemes, flow charts, etc.

Text portion of reports must be double-spaced (references and table/figure legends may be
single-spaced).

Report must be entirely machine-outputted, single sided.

Graphics (Figures, charts, etc) and Tables may be added at end of report or may be embedded
within the text of the report

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III. Purpose of each section

 Title – be concise and descriptive – conveys the scope or nature of the work

 Introduction – assemble RELEVANT body of knowledge – start broad and narrow

focus to area embodied by project – end with a presentation of objectives or hypothesis
statement(s) to be tested (~2 pp target) – make greatest use of literature here

The intent of the Introduction is to orient and prepare the reader for what type of
information will follow. A common structure (and one that you should use) is the
“funnel” type of introduction. This starts out with a broad view of presentation of the
area embodied by the work and places the work in the appropriate context relative to
existing knowledge. The next section serves to provide greater focus, by identifying a
specific problem, need or opportunity, and taking the time to concisely describe this
need. This requires selective and almost critical assessment of current knowledge based
on the citation of specific findings, in appropriate balance. This is also where the
scientific and technical foundation of the problem/need should be identified. The last
section should describe for the reader the nature of the principles you will exploit in
addressing this opportunity. What chemical aspects or principles do you intend to
exploit? What new approach or angle (scientific basis) do you think may be effective
(especially in view of where previous failings may be noted)? How do you imagine or
predict your approach will be successful? Or what new information is needed and how
do intend to fill that void? End with a brief statement (one sentence) of what you will
specifically do.

 Materials and Methods – must be descriptive enough to allow someone else to

reproduce your experiments – details of time, pH, temperature, composition,
equipment/procedure, concentrations (use final concentrations in the reaction/assay
mixture) – simply state basis of calculations (e.g., extinction coefficient), and show
calculation/formula especially when the calculation would not be obvious (use an
appendix for complicated calculations) – cite literature where appropriate – standard
curves and routine analytical responses can be contained in an appendix if appropriate

 Results – Experimental findings – need to PARTITION into sub-sets of related

experiments, and present in LOGICAL order (may not necessarily be chronological) –
draw appropriate conclusions for each SET of experiments – in order of importance or
priority, WHAT did you find -do your findings agree with previous ones – were your
results expected or unexpected (how do you account for them in either case) - transform
data to Tables and Figures to facilitate (economize) presentation of information – number
each Table or Figure in the order presented

 General Discussion (most likely a separate section or less likely incorporated into
Results) – A GLOBAL interpretation of the collective findings/experiments – what were
the important findings and issues surrounding them for the entire body of work – relate to
the current or existing body of knowledge (literature) where appropriate

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 Conclusion - what is known now (BIG PICTURE) that was not known before – what do
your results mean, what impact do they have relative to the original objectives and body
of knowledge surrounding them – where do your results lead???

 References – Authors, date, title, source (journal/book), complete page numbers

 Tables – legends needed to BRIEFLY describe the contents/experiments – summary

form (not raw data)

 Figures - legends needed to BRIEFLY describe the contents/experiments – summary

form (not raw data) – for multiple, spatially important comparisons (Bars) or time-course
of changes (Plots/Graphs) – scales and axes important