The following section is an excerpt from the example laboratory report, titled Proper Inflation of a Basketball. (The entire example report is available in either  Microsoft Word Format for printing, or  HTML format for online viewing.)
 
 

Figure 2. The outside diameter of the basketball we used was D = 24 cm. The inside diameter of the pump cylinder was d = 3.4 cm and the length of its stroke was D z = 38 cm.
 
 
 

Figure 3. Rebound height h as a function of the number of strokes of the pump used to inflate the basketball.

Note what's here:

Figure numbers. Figures are numbered by themselves (sepearate from equations and tables). Any object that is not an equation or a table is a "figure."

Descriptive captions. The caption appears below the figure and explains it. "Figure 1" by itself is not a descriptive caption.

Annotations. Arrows and dimensions help explain the elements of a drawing.

Legible fonts. Fonts that are too small are hard to read. Fonts that are too large are gaudy.

Units, where appropriate, on graph axes. Some axes display quantities that are dimensionless and need no units, but otherwise all axes need correct units.

Descriptive labels on graph axes. Variable names (such as "N") by themselves are inadequate.

• "Drawing," "graph," or other descrpition. Again, any object that is not an equation or a table is a "figure."
• Titles. Because every figure has a caption, a title would be redundant.
• Legends on the graph. Use annotations to identify features on graphs instead.
• Gray backgrounds. Pages should be able to be photocopied easily.