RESULTS: Content and Structure: Tables 2

Tables are very useful for presenting precise quantities in a highly organised and economical way. The reader will scrutinise your tables for the accurate, detailed information on which you have based your discussion and conclusion.

However, you should be careful not to be over-precise - usually, it is not necessary to give three significant figures when presenting quantities, two or even one is sufficient depending on the experiment. When you are averaging results, you will need to quote errors in your table.

Tables (especially those that contain many cells) are not very useful for showing trends and comparisons. For these purposes, figures are more appropriate.

Example Table

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of study participants.

	Mean ± SEM	Range
Age (years)	53.0 ± 1.1	49 - 58
Body Mass Index (kg/m2)	26.0 ± 1.1	21 -32