WRITTEN STYLE : We have already said that the purpose of writing up an experiment or other piece of practical work is to enable somebody else to repeat your work, and hopefully, obtain the same results that you did. For this, the written style has an important role to play. The written account should communicate the experimental details flawlessly to the reader. The following guidelines on written style should help you to communicate clearly, your practical work to others:

1. You can assume, unless you have any reason or instructions to do otherwise, that the person reading your report is familiar with basic techniques used in practical work.

2. You should describe, in detail, any unusual or more advanced procedures.

3. You can assume that your reader has the same scientific knowledge as yourself, but do not make any assumptions when describing your actions - after all, the reader did not actually witness the experiment.

4. The report should always be written impersonally, in the past tense, e.g., "a beaker was filled with water" - not "I filled a beaker with water".

5. Always write out the names of any chemicals that you used in full.

6. Do not use formulae in the prose part of your report. You can, however, use formulae in the results and calculations sections.