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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.


                                                                                                Used for (examples)


theorytobroad audience



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

DocumentariesDocumentaries                                                                          Explain


Synthesis Tables


Theory Synthesis    Summarizes the existing theories, approaches, differences and validity.

Prior Results Synthesis Summarizes the prior literature, methods, samples and results.