1 2.2 Reading a table
Tables are a common way of presenting information. We use tables to display key information, usually numbers. Tables can form a summary of information, or they may be a starting point for a discussion.
Tables can look quite formidable when a lot of information is presented all at once and finding your way around one can be difficult.
So how do you interpret a table?
The Sciences Good Study Guide (Northedge et al., 1997) advises that you should ask yourself these questions:
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What is the table about?
The title of the table should tell you what it is about.
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Where has the information come from?
The source of the information should be stated.
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What do the rows and columns represent?
The labels for the rows and columns should tell you what they represent.
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What do you want to know?
This will depend on your reasons for reading the table. You may want to look up a single piece of information, or you may be looking for overall patterns.
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What are you expected to remember?
Tables often contain a great deal of information. You may not need to remember any of it. Usually, it's the overall trends that are important.
| Purpose of Internet use by adults, in Great Britain in April 2004, who had used it in the last three months | |
|---|---|
| Purpose of access | % |
| Finding information about goods or services | 78 |
| Searching for information about travel and accommodation | 68 |
| Using email | 85 |
| Telephoning over the Internet / video conferencing | 7 |
| General browsing | 65 |
| Finding information relating to education | 37 |
| Buying or ordering tickets / goods or services | 50 |
| Selling goods or services | 10 |
| Personal banking and financial services | 37 |
| Playing or downloading games | 13 |
| Using chat rooms | 19 |
| Playing or downloading music | 27 |
| Reading or downloading online news | 32 |
| Listening to web radio / watching web television | 16 |
| Downloading other software | 24 |
| Downloading images | 27 |
| Looking for a job / sending job application | 22 |
Activity 4 (self-assessment)
Study Table 1 above carefully and then answer the following questions.
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Where has the information in the table come from?
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In the rightmost column, 8 rows down, you will see the number 10. What does this represent? Write a sentence to explain what this tells us.
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What is the highest number in the table? What does this represent?
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What is the lowest number in the table? What does this represent?
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What percentage of people who used the internet said they used chat rooms?
Answer
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The source is the National Statistics Survey.
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Of the people who had used the internet in the 3 months before the survey, 10% had done so for the purposes of selling goods or services.
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The highest number in the table is 85%. This is the percentage of people who had used the internet in the 3 months before the survey for email.
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The lowest number in the table is 7, which means that of the people who had used the internet in the 3 months before the survey, 7% had done so for telephoning and/or video conferencing.
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Of the people who had used the internet in the 3 months before the survey, 19% had done so to use chat rooms.