DATA ORGANIZATION, PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Research Methods
1 Data Organization and Presentation
To make interpretation and analysis of gathered data easier, data should be organized and presented properly. The usual methods used by researchers are textual, tables, graphs and charts.
1.1 Textual
Data can be presented in the form of texts, phrases or paragraphs. It involves enumerating important characteristics, emphasizing significant figures and identifying important features of data. This method is common among newspaper reports presenting specifically the salient or important findings.
Example 1: Loans released under the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program, the umbrella financial arm of the Department of Agriculture, grew by 151% to P1.2 billion in 2012 from 2011, as the number of farmer clients grew by 15% to 29,496. The total loans in 2012 was 4% higher than the P1.08 billion targeted for the year. (Manila Bulletin, April 12, 2013)
1.1.1 Grouped and ungrouped data. Data can be classified as ungrouped and grouped. Ungrouped data are data that are not organized, or if arranged, could only be from highest to lowest or lowest to highest. Grouped data are data that are organized and arranged into different classes or categories. It is important that data are organized to identify important characteristics.
One way of rearranging data is through the stem-and-leaf plot. A stem-and-leaf plot is a display that organizes a set of data to show both its shape and its distribution. Each data value is split into a “stem” and “leaf”. The leaf is usually the last digit of the number, and the other digits to the left of the leaf form the stem.
Example 2: The stem-and-leaf plot for the ages of farmer borrowers interviewed: 29, 37, 32, 46, 45, 45, 54, 51, 55, 55, 55, and 60.
Stem Leaf
2 9
3 72
4 655
5 41555
6 0
1.2 Tabular
The tabular method of data...