due today

Rough Draft of the Final Report

You are required to develop a rough draft for your Final Lab Report, which covers the drinking water quality experiment from the Week Two Lab assignment “Lab 2: Water Quality and Contamination.” Please use the Week Three Assignment Template for preparing your rough draft to insure that you include all required components in a well-organized manner.  Before completing this Template, view the Tutorial on the Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report Template so that you have a clear picture on how to use the template most effectively.  This rough draft must also be reviewed using the Grammarly (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. tool from the Writing Center to help you identify and correct any mistakes to your rough draft. Be sure to submit a screen shot of the Grammarly report and the corrected rough draft to the Week Three Assignment box.  This resource will show you how to take a screen shot on your computer and upload it to Waypoint successfully.For a written transcript, click here.

Complete the following steps to submit both reports:

1. Carefully read the instructions for your Final Lab Report assignment located within Week Five of the course..
2. Download the Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report Template and utilize this form to ensure correct formatting and inclusion of all required material.
3. View the Tutorial on the Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report Template so that you can apply the template with success. 
4. Use at least two scholarly sources, two credible sources, and your lab manual to support your points.
5. The rough draft must be three to five pages in length (excluding title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style. For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
6. Use the Grammarly tool to proofread your paper before submitting it for grading. Grammarly is a free proofreading program available to all Ashford students.  
   1. To learn how to set up and use Grammarly, watch the Grammarly tutorial (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
   2. Upload your paper to Grammarly and take a screen shot of your reviewed paper. Need help taking a screen shot? See this handout. 
   3. Save the Grammarly screenshot to your computer and submit it along with your assignment. This means that you will submit two documents to Waypoint: the Grammarly screen shot and your corrected rough draft.

Note: Need help using Grammarly? Email the Writing Center at . 

Note: Please do not use www.grammarly.com to sign up as you will get limited feedback. Ashford University pays for additional fabulous Grammarly services so you don’t have to. If you encounter any problems or technical issues, please contact:

The Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report must contain the following seven sections in this order:

1. Title Page - This page must include the title of your report, your name, course name, instructor, and date submitted.
2. Introduction - This section should discuss why the experiment was conducted. At a minimum, it should contain three paragraphs. One paragraph must cover background information of similar studies that have already been done in the area. This is accomplished by citing existing literature from similar experiments and explaining their results. A second paragraph should discuss an objective or a reason why the experiment is being done. Why do we want to know the answer to the question we are asking? A third paragraph should provide a hypothesis for the experiment conducted, along with your rationale behind that hypothesis.
3. Materials and Methods - This section should provide a detailed description of the materials used in your experiment and how they were used. A step-by-step rundown of your experiment is necessary; however, it should be done in paragraph form, not in a list format. The description should be exact enough to allow for someone reading the report to replicate the experiment, but it should be in your own words and not simply copied and pasted from the lab manual.
4. Results - This section should include the data and observations from the experiment. All tables and graphs should be present in this section. Additionally, there should be at least one paragraph explaining the data in paragraph form. There should be no personal opinions or discussion beyond the results of your experiments located within this section.
5. Discussion - This section should interpret or explain the meaning of your data and provide conclusions. At least three paragraphs should be outlined here. First, a paragraph should be present that addresses whether your hypothesis was confirmed or denied and how you know this. Second, you are to discuss the meaning of your findings in this area utilizing scholarly sources to put the paper into context. For example, how do your results compare with the findings of similar studies? Also, you should discuss if there are any outside factors (i.e., temperature, contaminants, time of day) that affected your results. If so, how could you control for these in the future?  Finally, you should discuss any future questions arising from your results and how you might test them with new experiments.
6. Conclusions - This section should provide a brief summary of your work.  What are the key take-away points from your study?
7. References - Provide a list of at least two scholarly sources, two credible sources, and your lab manual that will be used in the Final Lab Report. Format your references according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Note: An abstract must be included in the Final Lab Report. However, the abstract should not be included in the rough draft as it is to be written last after the entire paper is fully written. Do not forget this in your Final Lab Report.

In addition to the Grammarly (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. tool, you have three tutoring services available: Paper Review, Live Chat, and Tutor E-mail. Click on the Writing Center (AWC) tab in the left-navigation menu, in your online course, to learn more about these tutoring options and how to get help with your writing.

written transcript of video

Hello, SCI207 students. This week, you'll be working on your week three rough draft for your final paper. To help you complete the rough draft, you'll use the template located in the week three assignment section. Using this template will not only assure that you are following the right format for your rough draft, but it will also clarify how to put together your rough draft, significantly reducing confusion and the amount of time it takes to complete the rough draft.Let's get into some more details about each section of the template. First, read the directions in purple at the top of the document, particularly the part about reviewing the final lab report instructions. Don't skip over this section. Each of these points will clarify what to include in your rough draft submission. Finally, make sure you delete these directions before turning in your paper.The first section of your rough draft will be the introduction. As you can see, this is already laid out for you in three sections-- background, objective, and hypothesis-- each with specific directions about what to write in each body paragraph. Make sure you read through each section line by line, paying special attention to where your sources go and where your hypothesis should be at this point.The next section, materials and methods, will detail what you use in your exponent, as well as how you carried out the experiment. The directions in this part of the template will help you avoid two common pitfalls-- too much information, or not enough information. Read through these recommendations to find the right balance for your draft.The next section results will include two subsections-- tables and body paragraph. The directions in the table section will assure that you are formatting the table in the correct format, and using the right units of measurement. You will follow this up with a paragraph that describes the results. Pay special attention to this sentence. No personal opinion should be included. This can be tricky to do, but think to yourself, just facts, no opinion, and you'll be on the right path.Next will be the discussion. This section of the template breaks down the discussion into three paragraphs to make it easier for you to write a concise yet meaningful discussion. Take a deep breath and work through each part. You will notice that this section includes questions that encourage critical thinking and reflection. Take time to consider these questions and how they relate to your findings. What do your results mean? How does your study relate to other research that has been done on this topic? In this section, you will also write about errors in your scientific experiment. Even the most precise scientific experiments have an error rate, so don't be afraid to discuss this. It's normal.In the third paragraph, you will be asked to propose future exponents you might conduct based upon the results of this one. Scientists often find that each new exponent raises more questions than it answers. What new questions can you think of based on your own results?Finally, you'll work on your conclusion and references. The conclusion is simple. What main message would you like people to take away from this report? You may want to play around with your conclusion over the next few weeks until you can concisely summarize the main takeaways.Don't forget to include your references in APA format. If you need help of formatting, you can go to the Ashford University Writing Center to get resources or to reach out to a writing consultant. You can access the Writing Center directly from the Science 207 classroom. Just scroll down the menu along the left side of the page and click the tab labeled Writing Center.