ABSTRACT
Learning to construct effective visual presentations of complex data can be invaluable to people as a researcher. Not only do tables and charts help people communicate to others what people have found though people research, but building them can be a key step in analyzing people data to discover patterns and relationships. The chapter explores the basics of using some of the most common forms of graphic presentation. It uses data on one of the persistent questions in US politics— the relationship between gender and party preference— to illustrate the use of graphic presentations to visually "test" hypotheses. Each table should have a title that accurately reflects the nature of the data it reports and suggests the central question it can help answer. The Table function available in most graphics, word processing, or database programs simplifies the creation and editing of tables. Tables should only be included if they advance the analysis presented in the research report.
