Page 114 - DLIS401_METHODOLOGY_OF_RESEARCH_AND_STATISTICAL_TECHNIQUES

Unit 7: Data Analysis and Interpretation

(“What do you like most about the program?”), it is often useful to give some indication of Notes
how often a particular response was given.
Tables represent narrative or numerical information in tabular fashion. A table arranges information
in rows or columns, so that data elements may be referred to easily. They provide a clear and
succinct way to present data, and are often more simple and understandable than standard
writing style. They also facilitate the interpretation of data.
Figures, diagrams, maps and charts present verbal information visually. They often describe
information more clearly than several paragraphs of description. Common forms of figures
are: flow charts; organization charts; GANT charts; and/or maps.
• Flow charts are particularly useful for presenting relationships and/or describing the
sequence of events and the location and result of decisions.
• Organization charts are useful for presenting the chain of responsibility in a program.

• GANT charts list a set of tasks. They indicate the time each task is to be performed and
by whom.
• Maps visually describe certain geographical areas. They are useful in describing different
conditions for individual geographical areas.

Data refers to information or facts usually collected as the result of experience, observation or
experiment or premises. Data may consist of numbers, words, or images, particularly as measurements
or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as a lowest level of abstraction
from which information and knowledge are derived.
You might be reading a newspaper regularly. Almost every newspaper gives the minimum
and the maximum temperatures recorded in the city on the previous day. It also indicates the
rainfall recorded, and the time of sunrise and sunset. In your school, you regularly take
attendance of children and record it in a register. For a patient, the doctor advises recording
of the body temperature of the patient at regular intervals.
If you record the minimum and maximum temperature, or rainfall, or the time of sunrise and
sunset, or attendance of children, or the body temperature of the patient, over a period of
time, what you are recording is known as data. Here, you are recording the data of minimum
and maximum temperature of the city, data of rainfall, data for the time of sunrise and sunset,
and the data pertaining to the attendance of children. As an example, the class-wise attendance
of students, in a school, is as recorded in Table 7.1.

Table 7.1 Class-wise Attendance of Students

Class No. of Students Present
VI 42
VII 40
VIII 41

IX 35
X 36
XI 32
XII 30

Total 256

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