How to Write an EEI: Introduction, Conclusion & Examples

Miranda Campbell|20/01/2024|High School, How to Succeed

The thought of writing an Extended Experimental Investigations (EEI) often sends shivers down science students’ spines every single year. Whether you are in Year 8 or Year 12, a scientific report can be an intimidating piece of assessment for students to undertake, all tutors know that. We see the stress firsthand from our clients and we noticed they often don’t know where to start their EEI or what to do for each section let alone how to get a good mark.

How to Write an EEI: 3 Essential Tips to Know Before You Start Writing

EEI reports, contrary to popular belief, are not written from the Abstract to the Conclusion. Different sections should be finished at different times, so keep this guide as a reference whilst you progress through each stage of the writing process.

Tip #1: Your Task Sheet Is Your Best Friend

There is a saying that our Operations Manager loves to use here at A Team HQ:

“Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance”

This holds true in many facets of life and an EEI is no different, particularly when you are a young adolescent who hasn’t quite mastered the art of time management (no judgement here, we’ve all been there).

One crucial key to making your planning easier is your task sheet and even more so, your marking criteria. Familiarising yourself with the task sheet is not only going to tell you what you need to be doing (this part is obvious), but when combined with the marking criteria this will paint a clear picture of what your teacher will be looking for in your report.

Some tasks sheets are explicitly detailed and will provide all the information about the topics available for research, the expected report outline, required formatting and necessary information you need. Others can be quite vague, leaving the experiment open to interpretation.

In either circumstance, your marking criteria should be quite uniform, as they list the curriculum criteria that you are required to meet, and that are standardised across the state you are studying in. Whilst this may look like a lot of teacher jargon, if you take the time to break it down, it is incredibly informative about what expectations you need to meet for a certain grade.

Your task sheet may also tell you how many references you need to include in your report – this is ideal as you don’t want to spend too much time looking at research when you don’t need to!

Tip #2: Manage Your Time Wisely

Whatever method you may use to manage your time, it is crucial that you do so! This is fundamental to staying on top of your EEI and ensuring you aren’t sacrificing your other subjects and studies to do so.

Note down when you should be starting each part of your investigation and when you’re finishing it as soon as you receive your task sheet. Setting these mini goals will make you more accountable, therefore, making you more likely to do the work and as well giving you a little bit of satisfaction when you tick off each mini due date.

The easiest way to set these mini goals is to work backwards from the due date to work out when you need to start each part.

Overall you will most likely need to allocate:

a third of your time for researching, designing the method and writing the introduction;
another third for executing the experiment which includes creating the set up for the experiment and your testing;
the last third is writing up the results.

So that means for a six-week assignment you should assign two weeks to each different section.

When planning an EEI, knowing your time limits are important. So, don’t forget to look at the grade weighting for each of the sections. This will inform how much time and attention you should be placing on each section in order to capitalise on your marks. Typically, the introduction or the discussion hold the greater weight as the former is the basis for your entire experiment, whilst the latter is evidence of how well you can synthesise information and draw conclusions in a logical manner.

Tip #3: Master the Art of Research and Referencing

In order to write your hypothesis, method, introduction and discussion you need to conduct research. We know that these parts of your report could be the difference between a C or an A, so research skills are really important.

The point of research is to gain an insight into the history and existing studies on your topic and to identify a gap in the literature which warrants your experiment.

Like anything else, researching is a skill and it takes time to get good at it. However, once you get the hang of it, it really is a piece of cake. Just note there are rules to good research!

1. Use Google Scholar

Firstly, start by searching not with our old friend Google but its slightly smarter cousin, Google Scholar, which searches for research articles in all the free journals across the internet.

2. Choose the Right Search Terms

Secondly, utilising appropriate search terms will improve the outcome of your search dramatically. For example, if you were researching glucose concentration in sports drinks, you might type “Glucose Concentration Sports Drink” into Google Scholar.

Hierarchy of Research

Try to use industry specific terms when searching. This will increase the amount, and relevance, of papers found in your search. When reading papers, try to look at those words and then change your search terms to match.

For example, lifting weights is referred to as “resistance training” by the sport science community and “growing muscle” is called “muscle hypertrophy.” So, a better search term would be “resistance training and muscle hypertrophy for cross country running.”

3. Pick the Right Sources

Now that you have an abundance of papers, you need to pick good ones

The quality of information you find will impact the outcome of your report and understanding that there is a hierarchy of research will help you decide what to include.

If you want to use reputable sources, using peer reviewed journals that are less than 10 years old are most preferred, followed by textbooks and then websites run by scientific or government organizations (such as ANSTO or CSIRO).

Journal articles are considered as the best sources to use for EEI’s because they’re peer reviewed. This means that the article has been reviewed by a panel of scientists to ensure that there are no questionable results being reported. See the list to the right to have a look at the hierarchy of research evidence if you want to take it to the next level.

Patience is key because the first few sources that you find may not be what you’re looking for – but they can lead to the ones that you do need. Look at the references at the end of papers, there you’ll find hidden gems in the form of great papers or textbooks that were used in the article. Search for those articles to get some better papers if you’re not finding any good ones yourself.

4. Reference Everything

You also need to reference throughout your investigation. Use a table to keep track of the sources you find and use whilst you’re researching. The table should have the who, when, where and what of the publication. That is:

Who wrote the source?
When was it made?
Where was it made or published?
What was the name of the publication?

However, only include references that you “in-text” referenced in your investigation. How your references are presented both within your EEI and in the reference section will depend on what your teacher prefers. Often the recommended format is APA or Harvard.

Feeling Overwhelmed? Let Our Tutors Help Out With Your Report!

How to Write an EEI: A Step-by-Step Process

Now that you have your research prepared, it’s time to start writing your report. As we mentioned at the start of this guide, EEI’s are not typically written from start to finish, but rather in the order of:

Method
Introduction
Results
Discussion
Abstract

For each of these sections, there are specific requirements about what should be included and how it should be written.

How to Write a Method for Your EEI Report

Your method covers the steps you took to undertake your experiment and should be written in a way that will allow the reader to conduct the experiment themselves.

This is often broken into two parts; materials and procedures. It is very similar to a recipe. Your method should be written in third person and in past tense. List exact measurements and quantities of materials that you used.

How to Write an EEI Introduction

As the name implies, this is where you introduce the concept behind your experiment. When writing your introduction, be sure to touch upon four specific points.

Firstly, justify why your topic is relevant to a particular industry or population.

2. Secondly, explain the theory and science behind your solution.

3. Thirdly, review the literature. Make sure you discuss the main points you’ve identified from your literature search and include in-text referencing! The aim of this is to consolidate the foundations of your experiment and highlight how your research addresses a gap in the literature.

4. Once you’ve justified the relevance and the literature behind your hypothesis you need to explain the aim of your investigation. In simple terms, what does your study set out to do?

Then, you can explain briefly the science behind your method and how your results will support your hypothesis. Both textbooks and journal articles will help with this part. Finish this section with your hypothesis.

How to Present Your Results

Writing your results is a relatively simple part of an EEI.

Report your findings in figures and tables. Tables are great for comparing before and after results, while graphs are best used when comparing independent and dependent variables to identify a trend. The independent variable always goes on the x-axis (bottom) and the dependent on the y-axis (side).

How to Write an EEI Discussion

The discussion is the ‘make or break’ moment in an EEI and it is often the only part that has a word limit. It’s where you explain whether the results supported the hypothesis or not and then state why your results occurred. Look for reasons why your results were not 100% consistent and this is where your research journal comes in handy. Be succinct and logical.

After this, state the limitations of the investigation which reduced the accuracy of the measurements and the reliability of the method. Finally, explain how the results are significant for the scientific community.

How to Write an EEI Report Abstract

The final part you write in an EEI is the abstract and should be approximately 50-100 words. The abstract is a summary of the entire paper which includes: a sentence about the significance of your study, what the aim is, what was found in the results and whether the research could be modified or improved in the future.

Feeling Overwhelmed? Let Our APTs Help Out With Your Report!

Writing an EEI report can be one of the most challenging tasks in your high school career, but you’re not alone. With the results of our Transformation Program and support of our Academic Personal Trainers, you’ll have the confidence, motivation and tools you need to succeed in your academic journey.