90% of reports: 

- If you copy a figure, you must clearly state that the figure is taken from elsewhere in the figure caption and give the relevant citation. Otherwise you plagiarize the work from somebody else! Willful plagiarism or sloppy citation habits can cost you your acedemic degree and even your job.

- Each figure must have a proper figure caption. Write full sentences describing what is shown in the figure. 

- The figure size should be large enough that every figure element is clear and legible. The smallest font in the figure should be similar to the font size of the figure caption. Remeber that the reader may look at a black-and-white version of your report, so avoid the use of color to distinguish critical figure elements.

- Very few reports contained a proper abstract. Please review how to write a proper abstract (i.e., a short summary of your main results).


50% of reports:

- Each figure should be discussed in the text. Clearly describe the figure in your text (e.g.: "Figure xyz shows the Raman spectra for sample 5 and 8...") and then proceed to interpret the information you obtained from the plotted data. Some journals simply remove figures that are not referenced in the text.

- Please read the instructions carefully before submitting your report! I asked for reports with double-spaced lines and single-column format. Although I announced no Blackboard "I will only correct properly formatted reports", I ended up correcting your wrongly formatted reports. Don't expect such leniency in your professional careers.

- Work on your English vocabulary and writing skills. The easiest way to progress is to read English texts (books, newspapers, etc.) and to write a diary. Be aware that the English language has very simple grammar but relies on a large vocabulary to convey precise meaning. You must know the vocabulary and know how to use it in the correct context. 
E.g., light != photons: A weaker beam of light (e.g., after light absorption) describes something completely different from a lower photon energy (or a beam of light with different color).  
E.g., material != sample: Characterizing a material is not the same as identifying a sample. 
E.g., solution != liquid: a solution contains a solvent and a solute.+

- Avoid the use of vague placeholders such as 'it', 'they', unless you are very sure that the reader knows from the context what you are talking about. In many instances, I could not determine what you were talking about.

- Learn how to properly cite the literature. In your report, you should use the ACS citation style, but I would accept proper Chicago or MLA style citations. 

- Mr. Stokes and Mr. Raman discovered Raman spectroscopy and the Stokes shift. Their names are always capitalized.


10% of reports:

- Please structure your report properly with a intoduction, experimental, results, and maybe a discussion section.


- Do not plagiarize. "the U.S. National Science Foundation defines plagiarism broadly as "the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit" [see: "Authorial Integrity in Scientific Publication", Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, https://bit.ly/3FjdrVE]. If you take text from another source, you must clearly mark the text with quotation marks and cite the reference. Changing some words or the sentence structure does not make the text your own, but merely signals deliberate plagiarism. Make sure the reader understands which idea and which text originates from your own original work and which idea / text you took from somebody else.