The following suggestions may be helpful in planning this type of work:
• Give students clear guidance about the format of reports with generic section headings
• Get students to assess a range of good, bad and average past reports
• Publish and enforce clear deadlines for reports so that students don’t accumulate a backlog
• Prepare a standard assessment/feedback grid and complete this on a regular basis
• Include some pre-laboratory preparation in the form of short answer questions so students know what they’re doing
• Include in examinations some questions linked to laboratory work