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16 – Communicating Results

Why Should I Care?

The type of data, and your disciplinary focus, will determine the medium you will use to report the data.

Tables & Graphs (p. 254) Used for (examples)
Frequency Table   Opinion polls
Cross-Tabulation Table Sociology data, subgroups
Scattergram Correlation
Pie Graph     Shares
Bar Graph   Shares
Line Graph   Historical Trend


Social Geography Maps
Coloured Territory Maps  Comparing countries
Pin-Point Density Maps With postal code 
3-D Location Maps   Intensity, with pin-point location


Flow Charts
Production Flow Charts   Identifying inputs and outputs
Demographic Flow Charts  Explaining immigration
“Follow the Money” Charts Fraud Investigation


Social Linkages “Maps”
CEO Contacts Explaining business influence
Political Contacts Explaining political influence
Socio-cultural Contacts  Explaining cultural integration/isolation


Descriptive Text
Journal Articles and Conferences   Communicating results from latest study
Monographs Centering theory around recent literature
News and Blogs Debate current events to broad audience
Documentaries Documentaries                                                                          


Synthesis Tables
Theory Synthesis     Summarizes the existing theories, approaches, differences and validity.
Prior Results Synthesis Summarizes the prior literature, methods, samples and results.