NARRATIVE & TABULAR PRESENTATION OF DATA

• Purpose of data presentation


  To communicate information about the data to a potential user, therefore, it should be clear, concise, and direct to the point, encourage analytic thinking of the reader, and refrain from distorting data
• Methods of data presentation

  • Narrative (Textual)
  • Tabular (Table)
  • Graphical (Graphics)
• Narrative presentation of data


  Utilizes statements with few figures that describe very important data characteristics, complements data presented as tables or graphs, often used in research papers to highlight results or convey significant findings in the discussion or conclusion chapters
• Narrative presentation should come before the table
• Tabular presentation of data


  Provides a compact way of presenting large sets of information, can readily point out trends in the value of a variable, comparisons between variable categories, and interrelationships among variables
• Data should never be put on a table if it can be described efficiently in one or two sentences
• Table


  An orderly arrangement of statistical data into rows and columns, it should be self-explanatory, i.e. contain all the information necessary for the reader to understand the data, with some predetermined aim or purpose such as summarizing and presenting data, data checking and editing, or basis in the construction of graphs/charts
• Essential components of a table

  • Table Number
  • Title
  • Box Head
  • Stub
  • Body
  • Footnotes
  • Source of Data
• The number of variables presented should be kept to a minimum (except for the master table), no cell is left blank, row and column totals are checked for accuracy, a table should be placed immediately after the text where it is first cited
• Common errors in table construction include comparison based on absolute numbers and use of wrong denominators in computing for percentages
• Master table


  A single table which shows the distribution of observations across many variables of interest in a given study, a way of storing information with the aim of presenting detailed statistical data, facilitates generation and tabulation of smaller tables
• Dummy table


  A skeleton table which does not contain figures but gives a preview of what table outputs may be expected from the study, constructed during the preparation of the proposal to help researchers clarify the data collection instrument, protocol reviewers evaluate the proposal, and computer programmers determine the desired output
• It is advisable to construct at least one dummy table for each research objective
• Frequency distribution table


  A list containing class groupings and the corresponding frequencies with which data fall within each grouping, including frequency, cumulative frequency, relative frequency, and cumulative relative frequency
• Types of tables by number of variables presented

  • One-way
  • Two-way
  • Three-way
• Understanding a cross-tabulation table includes interpreting row percentages, column percentages, total row percentages, and total column percentages