Building on the last post about narrative writing, tables and figures can be used very effectively to present results of complicated or multi-faceted studies. Be careful how you select the data to be presented. A reader needs to receive only the key – earth shattering – information, even that which does not support your hypothesis. As well, avoid the pitfalls of having too much or too little narrative description to support the presentation. Select the important points or trend and talk about that ONLY.
The narrative text should be understandable by the reader who has not seen the figures and tables:
Which is better?
"The results are given in Figure 1" or "Temperature was directly proportional to metabolic rate (Figure 1)."
Statements in text must be supported by the results in the tables and figures
Try not to muddy narratives with statistical effects and numerical listings:
Fruit size was significantly greater in trees growing alone (t=3.65, df = 2, p<0.05)
State the actual observation and save the detail for last.
Tables should be constructed carefully so that the important information can be seen and compared. It does little for the reader if you simply insert long narratives into table cells. If it must be a narrative then it should be left as that – tables should allow the eye to scan and compare – Here is an example:
Study | Study Description | Results |
Bousquet J. et al (1996) | Objective to determine effect of cetirizine HCl 10 mg on QOL in patients with allergic rhinitis. Duration of study: 6 weeks. Total of 122 subjects completed cetirizine arm versus 126 subjects in placebo arm Validated QOL measurement tool used: SF-36* | Quality of life and nasal symptoms were measured after 1 and 6 weeks of treatment using SF-36 questionnaire. After 6 weeks, percentage of days without rhinitis or only mild rhinitis was significantly greater in the cetirizine group compared with the placebo group. Cetirizine improved all nine QOL dimensions (from p = 0.01 to p < 0.0001) after 1 and 6 weeks of cetirizine treatment |
Notice that information is repeated in the description and in the result cell. I would assume that this writer simply copied a paragraph into a cell and the result is the reader needs to search for the key information.
A better presentation of this might be:
Study | Study Description | Results |
Bousquet J. et al (1996) |
|
|
Select also, what information is best presented in either tables or figures. Tables allow for larger amounts of detailed information to be presented and compared while figures should be reserved for those situations when a pictorial of a relationship or an effect is most suitable. A picture is worth a thousand words – but ten pictures are worth only that – ten pictures.
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Author: Betty Cory, President
Regxia Inc.
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