ABSTRACT
One of the things that tends to frustrate me at times when I read research reports is the lack of time that appears to have been taken to think about the most effective way to present findings. It is frustrating because invariably the authors have done all of the hard work in analyzing the data, and may actually have some very interesting findings, and yet this can sometimes get lost because of the way that these findings have been poorly presented. If you have gone to all the trouble to collect data and to analyze them, it is important that you spend time thinking carefully about how best to display those findings through tables and charts. As the old saying goes, “a picture paints a thousand words” and this is so true of quantitative research. It is possible to greatly increase people’s understanding of your findings and also their impact simply through the use of a few well-designed tables and charts.
