Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Tables and Figures

Recently a student asked me "how many tables and figures should I have in my dissertation?" This is another of those tough questions for which it is hard to provide a firm rule. The APA manual states that you should "limit the content of your tables to essential materials" (section 5.07). This means you should only include information that is cumbersome or confusing if written in text. A couple of examples are demographics and correlation tables, which are often clearer in table format than explained in text. Below is an example of a demographics table from a dissertation (Clark, 2013).

Table 1. Summary of Demographics
Demographics
Participants                     
Gender
Age
Time attending
community college
Participant 1
Female
62
3 years
Participant 2
Female
57
1 online class
Participant 3
Female
55
4 classes
Participant 4
Female
54
2 years
Participant 5
Male
50
2.5 years
Participant 6
Female
52
3 years
Participant 7
Male
51
1 year
Participant 8
Female
59
4 years
Participant 9
Female
59
3 years
Participant10
Female
62
7 years
Participant11
Male
58
2 years
Note. The mean age of the participants was 56.2 years.
  
What about figures (graphs)? These should be used very sparingly. The only time I recommend the use of a figure is for a quantitative study that had an interaction effect, it is typically easier to understand if presented in a graph. Here is an example from Stadtlander, Giles and Sickel (2013, p.128).

As shown in Figure 1, there was an interaction effect (F [1, 14] = 13.25, p < .01), whereby the lab group showed a greater knowledge gain over the four periods as compared to the comparison group.

Figure 1: Research Knowledge Test Scores Interaction Effect for Lab and Comparison Students

Next time I will examine the issue of feedback on the content of papers. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu 

Clark, L. (2013). Older Adult Community College Students' Perceptions of Readiness for Learning Online. Walden University Doctoral Dissertation.


Stadtlander, L., Giles, M. & Sickel, A. (2013).  The Virtual Research Lab: Research Outcomes Expectations, Research Knowledge, and the Graduate Student Experience. Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 3(1), 120-138.

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