The document discusses various ways to analyze and present quantitative data from surveys and studies. It provides examples of tables showing counts and percentages of students by age and gender. It also shows bar charts and pie charts representing causes of accidental deaths. The key points are: - Present data in a way that allows readers to see overall patterns and relationships rather than focusing on individual data points. - Simpler representations like grouping age ranges can make tables clearer. - Bar charts and pie charts are useful ways to visually depict frequency or proportional data. Certain designs may be more informative than others.

1. Data Analysis

2. Try to avoid discussing each answer or
item of data individually.
Present the data in an appropriate way that
displays the information in a way the
reader can see the collective information.
In your discussion, look for patterns, links
and contradictions – then link this to your
literature review.

3. Age Number of
students
Percentage of
students
19-21 group total
19 50 22.0
20 73 32.2 178 (78.4%)
21 55 24
22-24 group total
22 26 11.5
23 11 4.8 42 (18.5%)
24 5 2.2
25-27 group total
25 4 1.8
26 2 0.9 7 (3.1%)
27 1 0.4
Simplifying tables
Look at the table below. Given it refers to diploma students who generally
start their education from 16 to 17 what purpose does all the data shown
serve? How might it be simplified?

4. Age range Group total Cumulative %
19-21 178 78.4
22-24 42 96.9
25-27 7 100
Simplifying tables
A simpler yet arguably clearer
representation of the earlier
table. There is no right or wrong
answer and you have to decide
which best suits your needs.
Basic characteristics Count Percentage
Gender Male 23 10.1
Female 204 89.9
Total 227 100.0
Educational level O level 199 89.6
A level 23 10.4
Total 222 100.0
What question might the above data throw up and how might you answer it?

5. Table 3.3 - Social Trends 1997
Literacy and numeracy standards of 37 year olds: by age on leaving
full-time education, 1995
Great Britain Percentages
Age on leaving Low High Low High
full-time education literacy1 literacy2 numeracy1 numeracy2
Under 16 22 78 67 33
16 25 75 59 41
17-18 10 90 36 64
19-20 6 94 25 75
2l and over 0 100 12 88
All 37 year olds 18 82 47 53
1 People generally not able to demonstrate skills above The Basic Skills Agency's foundation standard.
2 People generally able to demonstrate skills above The Basic Skills Agency's foundation standard.
Source. City University from the National Child Development Study
Providing enough information to interpret data

6. Which of these two graphs is more
informative?
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
1960 1970 1980 1990
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
1960 1970 1980 1990
Year
Householdswithpetsper1000

7. Bar and Pie Charts
These are used to represent frequency, i.e. the number of occurrences in a
particular category. In Simple bar charts data is represented by a series of
bars. There are however other types such as Multiple and Component and
the differences are shown here.
Bar Charts
Sweden Spain UK
UK
Spain
Sweden
These are used extensively to represent data pictorially. As they are
constructed in percentages they are a convenient way of showing the
component figures in proportion to each other and to the overall total.
Pie Charts

8. 0
10
20
30
40
50
Vehicles
Falls
Drowning
Fires
Poisoning
Others
1992 deaths from accidents
Which of these bar charts do you think looks better?
1992 deaths from accidents
25
8
5
4
47
15
0 10 20 30 40 50
Vehicles
Falls
Drowning
Fires
Poisoning
Others

9. 1992 deaths from accidents
45%
14%
4%
5%
8%
24%
Vehicles
Falls
Drowning
Fires
Poisoning
Others
1992 deaths from accidents
45%
14%
4%
5%
8%
24%
Vehicles Falls Drowning Fires Poisoning Others
Which of these pie charts do you think looks better?

10. “Sure your patients have 50% fewer cavities.”
The truth – but not the whole truth
“That is because they have 50% fewer teeth!”