This study examined the effect on student learning of writing laboratory (lab) reports in the synopsis format versus the traditional format of the field of industrial technology, as well as the benefits of reduced instructor grading time and reduced student writing time. The synopsis lab report format, if able to provide students with an equally effective learning experience as the traditional lab report format while requiring less of an instructor’s time for grading and freeing up a significant amount of students’ out-of-class study time for other assignments, would be beneficial to instructors who choose to adopt it and to their students.