A General Guide To
Write Your Mechanical ELA Laboratory Report
I used to think that mechanical Ela
contributes a very high percentage of ELA grading (results) and that it was the
most important aspect of Ela because of the strict and rigid organization of
the mechanical Ela Supervisors and most especially, the fact that the report
has to be submitted on that same day by 4pm at most unlike other Elas. Little
did I know that it only carries 20 out of 100 marks. I was shocked when we were
told this in our last mechanical Ela experiments. I wish I knew this all along,
maybe I would have performed better.
Now, you have an opportunity to get
to know this secret so you don’t have any reason to get less than a “B” in your
Ela Results. This will be very advantageous for you as a 200level student of
this great faculty of Engineering in the University of Benin, Benin city. So
take every bit of the details I’ll bring to you meticulously and valuable.
First, let us start with the general
grading system of Ela. The Mechanical Ela Contributes 20Marks, Electrical Ela
Contributes 10marks while the production Ela which most students take very
lightly at times contributes the highest mark which is 70marks.
You now know how the grading is done, and that Production Ela
contributes the highest percentage of marks in the grading, lets talk about How
Mechanical Ela is Marked.
How Mechanical Ela
is Marked
The mechanical Ela marking is
completely dependent on how well you perform I your laboratory report writing.
Your practical involvement and attendance does not attract any mark. But, NOTE THAT absence or missing out from any
laboratory practical (Ela) increases your potential of failing the course! So
be careful not to miss any practical. Though there is always a room for make-up
practical, try avoiding the unnecessary stress involved in it.
So, all the marks you get in from
mechanical Ela are strictly from your laboratory report performance. This
laboratory report is designed in a sheet of paper which is given to you during
or after the practical to fill out and submit back to your experiment
supervisor. This report is divided into four sections. Sections A, B C and D.
Figure 1
Section A is for official use only.
This is where your Score is Recorded and signed by the Assessor or Marker.
Section B is where you fill in your
details such as Name, Matriculation number, Level, etc. Be careful when filling
out this section because it Carries 1mark. Any errors found in this section
will make you lose that 1mark.
Section C is the where the laboratory
report is actually written. It contains everything that concerns the experiment
and the experimental procedure. The Section C is further divided in to 8-parts.
·
Theory
·
Apparatus
·
Results
·
Analysis
of Results
·
Observations
and Precautions
·
Graphs
·
Discussion
and
·
Conclusion
Now let us carefully analyze section
C.
Analysis of Section C
Theory: the
theory part of section C contains 3marks. This is where you write down the
theoretical approach or understanding of the experiment and if possible write
down also the mathematical formula’s derived from the theory. Some people go
extra miles to draw illustrative diagrams in this theory aspect and they of course
have to attach an extra sheet to their report because of limited space for
theory in the laboratory report sheet. Well, going extra miles pays a lot
because the Assessor or the marker gets impressed at people who go the extra
miles and gives them full 3marks or sometimes 2½ marks. Very ridiculous.
Apparatus: Here you are to draw and label the
experimental set up in 3D form. You should also draw some important measuring
instruments used in the experiment. Ensure to label properly. Note: 2D diagrams cannot give you more than
1mark so it is most advisable to do your drawing in 3D. If your Assessor is
very impressed with your work, you could get 2-2½ marks in this part.
Results: this is where you record your
tabulated readings got from the experiment, do the calculations on experimental
results obtained. This part carries 2marks. If you’re lucky, you’ll get your
complete 2marks if the Assessor is lenient to check the tables and your work is
neat.
Analysis of Results: in this part, you show little calculations
done to get derived values in your table. This part carries 2marks.
Observations and
Precautions: write
down your observations during the experiment and the precautions you took while
performing the experiment. Note that different experiments have different
precautions. Listen carefully to your laboratory supervisor while he/she is
explaining the experimental procedure because they’ll mention the necessary
precautions to take during the experiment while they are explaining.
You could tabulate the observations and precautions if you
have so much to write about because of limited space. Eg.
OBSERVATIONS
|
PRECATUIONS
|
Doing this
will enable you gain your full 1-mark in this part.
Graph: This is the section where you list
down the graphs you were asked to plot. It is hilarious to know that this part
only contributes 3-marks as well. So many students waste their time
concentrating on graphs. The fact is that no matter how many graphs an experiments
a graph has; be it 3 or 4, the 3-marks allocated to it will not be increased.
So why stress yourself so much on graph plotting? I believe that if you fill
out other aspects appropriately without plotting a graph, you will still do
very well in your cumulated score. So endeavor to fill out every other part of
the laboratory manual before plotting graphs. And make sure to plot neat, clear
and readable graphs. Accuracy is not much of an issue because the curve of your
graph is dependent on the values you calculated from the experimental
procedure, which in turn has some errors.
Discussion: here, you answer the questions posed
in your manual under the heading “Discussion” but if there is no such heading
in a particular experiment, then you talk about the possible sources of error
in the experiment and also how to reduce them. Then you could also talk about
the difference in the experimental values and the theoretically calculated
value and some other stuffs. This part carries just 1-mark.
Conclusion: here, you should talk about what has
been achieved from the experiment and how this experiment is been applied in
the world today (ie. In the engineering field or generally). This part also carries 1-mark.
SECTION D (Questions
Section)
This is the sections where you are being asked several
questions concerning the experiment. There are 16-questions to be answered in
this section. Please do well to answer all the questions and Make Sure you give
reasonable answers. This whole section carries 3-marks, that is to say that the
16-questions only gives you 3-marks. So try to impress your assessor very much
in order to gain your full marks.
Note: for
the No. 16 question that asks you to list down the list of references you made,
do not write down the website you consulted, you are expected to write the
textbooks and not website addresses. To get a list of references, search the
experiment title on Wikipedia, and scroll down to the bottom, you will see a
list of text books pick one or two and write them down.
That is all for
answering mechanical Ela laboratory reports. We do hope you adhere strictly to
this piece of information and perform excellently in your report writing. And remember, its all about impressing your assessor. We wish you all the best as you Carry on.
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