In industry, an engineering log book is used by technicians and engineers, to document their work. The log book is accepted as a legal document and must be treated as such. In industry, specific information must be included in all entries.

• Entries must be in a bound book with consecutively numbered pages.
• No pages may be torn out.
• If page is to be skipped, a diagonal line is drawn across the page, it is dated and signed.
• All errors are crossed out with a single line and initialed.
• All work is done in BLACK ink.
• The company name, your name, the name or title of the project is listed on the front cover.
• Each entry will include a detailed description of the work performed, a list of test equipment used (including serial number and model number), and all material used.
• The bottom of each page is signed and dated.
• If an associate witnessed the work, they will sign and date the bottom of the page, to attest to the work done.
• The engineering log book should never be destroyed or thrown out. The company will provide storage for all completed log books.
• If a graph is generated by a computer or if a data sheet is to be included in the log book, it must be permanently glued on to a page.  Label, initial, and date the inclusion, spanning the edge of the inclusion and the original page.  By doing this, if the page is removed, there is evidence that something was originally present.

In the classroom, an engineering log book will be used for all laboratory assignments. In an effort to conserve cost for the student, a graph - style scientific notebook will be substituted for the actual engineering log book.  The manner in which data is logged will remain the same.

Each lab report will be set up in the same fashion. It will contain the same sections, with only the information differing between reports. By creating a lab report in this manner, no important material will be overlooked nor will it be difficult to follow. Since you will be utilizing your labs as study material for future classes, organization and completeness will benefit you in the future. All data will be entered into you engineering log book, utilizing the following format:

TITLE - The title of the laboratory experiment.

PURPOSE - A brief paragraph describing what you are investigating and what you might hope to find.

PROCEDURE - How you set up your lab experiment, including:

1. Schematics
2. Drawings
3. Text
4. Pre-laboratory calculations
5. Tables for data (calculated, measured)

DATA - Actual data collected during the lab, including:

1. Raw data
2. Graphs, plots
3. List of components
4. Measured values of components
5. List of test equipment (including model and serial number)

RESULTS - What did you find out

- Was the data valid, if not, why not?

- Any difficulties experienced, what did you do to solve them