HOW TO…
Calculate | Collect | Describe | Graph | Hack
Identify | Measure | Tabulate | Use | Write
When it comes to tabulating data, I often encourage science students (and teachers) to heed the good advice of author and social scientist Gary Klass.
Klass has written a thoughtful, well-researched book on data analysis in which he devotes a couple of chapters to the presentation of data. In one chapter in particular (Chapter 5), he offers his readers sound advice about the creation of tables.
Although his 2012 book is explicitly aligned with work in the social sciences, his core principles and descriptions of table components are highly relevant to the tabular work often undertaken by natural scientists. The links included below draw much from the tips and advice offered by Klass in his book, but readers will also quickly see that Dr. M has gathered and assembled tips, advice, and resources from a number of different sources from around (and beyond) the Internet.
ALL ABOUT TABLES
Regardless of the type of table you construct, there are a few key tabular PRINCIPLES of which you need to be aware. There are also some elemental COMPONENTS that can be identified in most (but not all) types of tables. Before looking at table types (below), you should spend some time reading the content presented on these two pages.
TABLE SELECTION
Unlike the case with charts and graphs, the selection of the type of table to use in your work is less complicated. When trying to choose a table type, ask yourself a question: Does the data I wish to organize contain mostly…
Words?
– If so, then consider creating a TEXTUAL table.
Numbers derived from statistics?
– If so, then consider creating a STATISTICAL table.
Numbers not derived from statistics?
– If so, then consider creating a NUMERICAL table.
Words and numbers (either derived or not derived from statistics)?
– If so, then consider creating a HYBIRD table.
TABLE TYPES
TEXTUAL (WORD) TABLES
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STATISTICAL TABLES
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NUMERICAL TABLES
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HYBRID TABLES
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RUBRICS
Use the links below to see the grading rubrics Mr. M uses to evaluate your tables.
Generic
Data tables – Generic (3-criteria)
Data tables – Generic (9-criteria)
Specific
Data tables with words
Data tables with numbers (Statistics)
Data tables with numbers (NO statistics)
Data tables with words and numbers (Hybrid)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Visit THIS PAGE to gain access to more resources when composing all types of tables.