Commander Hange,
Your results so far are magnificent. You are a diligent researcher with an eye for detail, and I commend how far you have gotten with nothing but my barebones instructions to guide you. You have me curious; might I ask for your academic qualifications? Have I been wrongfully calling you Commander Hange when it was Professor Zoë all along?
Bertholdt is a promising test subject. I have full confidence that the spinal tap won't be an issue for him when he has quietly taken a peritoneal puncture. I do not know if you have ever had the procedure done yourself, but it is quite harrowing. Please keep me up to date on how he took the rest of the organ samplings, and make sure to reward him sufficiently when he cooperates. I suspect letting him recover to the tune of his favorite music will keep him happy.
If the results were positive, then I encourage you to take the first spinal tap. Let one of his closer friends attend and hold his hand for moral support so that he may be at ease. You can expect to extract a slightly milky but still transparent and colorless, odorless fluid. If you note any discoloration, that means you have missed your mark. Odor may point at an infection or a contaminated sample.
Good luck, and remember: there is no shame in needing multiple punctures to find the right spot. A lumbar puncture is a delicate procedure even to trained surgeons.
I in hindsight offered you little explanation when I suggested your report.
Scientific reports avoid 'we', 'us', and other personal pronouns and references if you want it to come across professionally. You may use a passive voice to avoid such language. "We have conducted a study" can be changed to "A study was conducted", and so forth.
Let me offer you an overview of a brief experiment's report headers:
• An abstract is a short summary of your experiment. Yours is too abstract; generally, it contains several sentences, most of which pertain to the results.
• In your materials and methods, you outline everything you used for your experiment, including the location and the manpower used for security. Briefly go over how you conducted the experiment, but do not linger. You do not need to name Bertholdt as this is too personal and irrelevant to the study.
• In your results, you outline the data your experiment led you to, but you do not interpret them yet. "The Colossal Titan collapsed. His shifter was obtained and was unconscious" is good; "The Colossal Titan collapsed because his shifter lost consciousness" is an interpretation and does not belong in this section.
• Finally, in your discussion, you interpret your results and talk about their implications and future research.
In attachment, I have enclosed an example of how I would report your study's findings. I could not derive your full method and results from what you sent me and made some assumptions; please do correct me as needed. There is no need to return this document. I do not need it myself and you are free to study and copy it as you please.
Practice writing these segments for your other tests. This will help you optimize your scientific writing skills when you compose your larger paper. The full paper will have additional headers; if you wish, I can explain its structure to you. Do not be afraid of sounding repetitive. You are not writing a novel.
May I ask how Bertholdt reacted to this endurance test you sent me? I was under the impression that your body of work all included painless tests. This one, even though it caused him severe bodily harm only by accident, sounds quite painful. Did you notice any change in his demeanor afterwards?
I hope this letter finds you swiftly so that you can start on your first spinal tap.
P.S.: When might the date of your birth be?
Yours truly,
Warchief Zeke Yeager
10th of January, 852