user's guide	writing the report	worked examples	additional resources	FOPs
	Psychology Laboratory Report Writing

< Results | Figures >

6: Tables

A table presents, in a carefully structured form, a collated summary of the data collected during the research that was undertaken. While a table should always stand independently of text, that is, be interpretable without reference to the text, it should, nevertheless, be accompanied by text that tells the reader how it should be read.

A table (as the following example shows):

• Must have a title that is informative but concise. The title is underlined and appears above the table;
• Should have labels for any group-based or condition-based data, as well as indicate clearly the nature of the data that are contained in the table.

Note: It is important to note that in psychology there are conventions about the tables that are used for data representation, and the conventions are, in general, different from the kinds of elaborate tabulation options that many word processing packages provide. As you will see by referring to any good psychology journal, for example, tables are not like spreadsheets; they have horizontal but not vertical lines.

Ideally, a table should:

• Be introduced in the text before it appears;
• Be followed, as soon as possible after it appears, with text that indicates to the reader how to draw out the pattern in the findings presented in it.

< Results | Figures >

Last updated March 30, 2004 | Site credits and information Site contacts - content: Prof. Gail Huon School of Psychology, construction: Belinda Allen EDTeC © The University of New South Wales 2004