UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LEGAL STUDIES

PANJAB UNIVERSITY

A PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED AS A PART OF CURRICULUM

OF B.COM. LL.B. (Hons.) IN THE SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY ON THE TOPIC OF

Significance of Data Presentation

Techniques in Research

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

PROF. (DR.) GULSHAN KUMAR KARAN KUMAR

ROLL NO. 356/19

SECTION F- 6TH SEM.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Dr.

Gulshan Kumar who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful
project on the topic ‘Significance of Data Presentation Techniques in Research’
which also helped me in doing a lot of research and I came to know about so
many new things. He provided with guidelines from time to time. His profound
knowledge of the subject helped me in writing meaningful content in the
project. I am really thankful to him.

Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who supported me
morally as well as helped me in finding relevant material regarding the project
so that I could complete it in the limited time frame.

Karan Kumar

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 Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 4
Meaning of Data Presentation ................................................................................. 5
Forms of Data Presentation ..................................................................................... 6
1. Textual presentation:- .................................................................................... 6
2. Tabular Presentation of Data .......................................................................... 6
3. Diagrammatic presentation of data ................................................................. 8
a) Geometric Diagram: ....................................................................................... 8
b) Frequency Diagram: ..................................................................................... 10
c) Arithmetic Line Graph: ................................................................................ 12
Significance of Data Presentation ......................................................................... 13
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 15
Bibliography ......................................................................................................... 16

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 Introduction

Data are a set of facts, and provide a partial picture of reality. Whether data are
being collected with a certain purpose or collected data are being utilized,
questions regarding what information the data are conveying, how the data can
be used, and what must be done to include more useful information must
constantly be kept in mind.

Since most data are available to researchers in a raw format, they must be
summarized, organized, and analyzed to usefully derive information from them.
Furthermore, each data set needs to be presented in a certain way depending on
what it is used for. Planning how the data will be presented is essential before
appropriately processing raw data.

First, a question for which an answer is desired must be clearly defined. The
more detailed the question is, the more detailed and clearer the results are. A
broad question results in vague answers and results that are hard to interpret. In
other words, a well-defined question is crucial for the data to be well-
understood later. Once a detailed question is ready, the raw data must be
prepared before processing. These days, data are often summarized, organized,
and analyzed with statistical packages or graphics software. Data must be
prepared in such a way they are properly recognized by the program being used.
The present study does not discuss this data preparation process, which involves
creating a data frame, creating/changing rows and columns, changing the level
of a factor, categorical variable, coding, dummy variables, variable
transformation, data transformation, missing value, outlier treatment, and noise
removal.

On the other hand, the preparation of tables and graphs is a crucial tool in the
analysis and production/publication of results, given that it organizes the
collected information in a clear and summarized fashion. The correct
preparation of tables allows researchers to present information about tens or
hundreds of individuals efficiently and with significant visual appeal, making
the results more easily understandable and thus more attractive to the users of
the produced information. Therefore, it is very important for the authors of
scientific articles to master the preparation of tables and graphs, which requires
previous knowledge of data characteristics and the ability of identifying which
type of table or graph is the most appropriate for the situation of interest.
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 Meaning of Data Presentation

The presentation of data refers to how mathematicians and scientists summarize

and present data related to scientific studies and research. In order to present
their points, they use various techniques and tools to condense and summarize
their findings. These tools include the use of tables, graphs and subsets to
provide an overview of their calculations and the data they have mined.

The primary reason for extracting the relevant data from your results and
presenting it is to demonstrate to the reader and marker of your study that you
can select the data most appropriate for answering your research questions and
graphically work with the data to allow it to highlight its own inherent
correlations and relationships. While a comprehensive data table that stretches
for many pages may technically do the same thing, leaving the reader to try to
‘find’ the relevant data amongst a jumble of numbers is a sign of poor research
practice. It is a good idea instead to structure your data presentation with your
research questions in mind. Each one can be addressed in turn, with the
appropriate data extracted and presented. Readers and markers of your study
will expect to see the use of a variety of data presentation techniques which are
being used appropriately – not just for the sake of adding different ways of
looking at the data. Putting every piece of data you have into a pie chart,
histogram or scatter graph is not only boring for the reader and demonstrates a
lack of imagination in the researcher and an inappropriate use of techniques, but
also shows a lack of understanding of the benefits of using one data presentation
technique over another. Bar charts for example may not be appropriate for
showing a particular type of data. Simply typing the data into a spreadsheet
package such as Microsoft Excel and selecting one of their generic data
presentation techniques may illustrate that the researcher has not thought about
the unique nature of the data and the research questions they are trying to
answer.

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 Techniques of Data Presentation

The three main forms of presentation of data are:

1. Textual presentation:-

The discussion about the presentation of data starts off with it’s most raw and
vague form which is the textual presentation. In such form of presentation, data
is simply mentioned as mere text that is generally in a paragraph. This is
commonly used when the data is not very large.

This kind of representation is useful when we are looking to supplement

qualitative statements with some data. For this purpose, the data should not be
voluminously represented in tables or diagrams. It just has to be a statement that
serves as fitting evidence to our qualitative evidence and helps the reader to get
an idea of the scale of a phenomenon.

For example, “Census of India 2001 reported that Indian population had risen to
102 crore of which only 49 crore were females against 53 crore males. Seventy-
four crore people resided in rural India and only 28 crore lived in towns or
cities. While there were 62 crore non-worker population against 40 crore
workers in the entire country. Urban population had an even higher share of
non-workers (19 crore) against workers (9 crore) as compared to the rural
population where there were 31 crore workers out of a 74 crore population.

In this example data have been presented only in the text. A serious drawback of
this method of presentation is that one has to go through the complete text of
presentation for comprehension. But, it is also true that this matter often enables
one to emphasize certain points of the presentation.

2. Tabular Presentation of Data

A table facilitates representation of even large amounts of data in an attractive,

easy to read and organized manner. The data is organized in rows and columns.
This is one of the most widely used forms of presentation of data since data
tables are easy to construct and read.
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Classification used in tabulation is of four kinds:-

a) Qualitative Classification:- In this classification, data in a table is

classified on the basis of qualitative attributes. In other words, if the data
contained attributes that cannot be quantified such as social status, physical
status, nationality, etc. it can be identified as a qualitative classification of
data.

Literacy in India by sex and location (per cent)

Sex Rural Urban

Male 79 90
Female 59 80
Source: Census of India 2011. (Literacy rates relate to population aged
7 years and above)

b) Quantitative Classification:- In quantitative classification, the data are

classified on the basis of characteristics which are quantitative in nature. In
other words these characteristics can be measured quantitatively. For
example, age, height, production, income, etc are quantitative
characteristics.
Marks of Students in a Class Test (Out of 60)
Marks Students
0-10 15
10-20 27
20-30 18
Source: Unpublished data

c) Temporal classification:- In this classification time becomes the

classifying variable and data are categorised according to time. Time may
be in hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc.
Sales of a Shop during Different Years
Year Sales
2018 53,000
2019 66,000
2020 80,000
Source: Unpublished data

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 d) Spatial Classification:- When classification is done on the basis of place,
it is called spatial classification. The place may be a village/town, block,
district, state, country, etc.
Sales of a company in different states of India
State Sales
Punjab 14000
Haryana 11000
Rajasthan 9000
Source: Unpublished data

3. Diagrammatic presentation of data

This is the third method of presenting data. This method provides the quickest
understanding of the actual situation to be explained by data in comparison to
tabular or textual presentations. Diagrammatic presentation of data translates
quite effectively the highly abstract ideas contained in numbers into more
concrete and easily comprehensible form. Diagrams may be less accurate but
are much more effective than tables in presenting the data. There are various
kinds of diagrams in common use. Amongst them the important ones are the
following:

a) Geometric Diagram:
Bar diagram and pie diagram come in the category of geometric diagram:

i. Bar Diagram: Bar diagram comprises a group of equispaced and

equiwidth rectangular bars for each class or category of data. Height or
length of the bar reads the magnitude of data. The lower end of the bar
touches the base line such that the height of a bar starts from the zero
unit. Bars of a bar diagram can be visually compared by their relative
height and accordingly data are comprehended quickly. Data for this can
be of frequency or non-frequency type. In non-frequency type data a
particular characteristic, say production, yield, population, etc. at various
points of time or of different states are noted and corresponding bars are
made of the respective heights according to the values of the
characteristic to construct the diagram. The values of the characteristics
(measured or counted) retain the identity of each value. Different types of
data may require different modes of diagrammatical representation. Bar

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 diagrams are suitable both for frequency type and non-frequency type
variables and attributes. Discrete variables like family size, spots on a
dice, grades in an examination, etc. and attributes such as gender,
religion, caste, country, etc. can be represented by bar diagrams. Bar
diagrams are more convenient for non-frequency data such as income-
expenditure profile, export/imports over the years, etc.

Science

Maths
Raju
Harsh

Hindi Rahul

English

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Marks obtained in different subjects by different students.

ii. Pie Diagram: A pie diagram is also a component diagram, but unlike a
bar diagram, here it is a circle whose area is proportionally divided
among the components it represents. It is also called a pie chart. The
circle is divided into as many parts as there are components by drawing
straight lines from the centre to the circumference. Pie charts usually are
not drawn with absolute values of a category. The values of each category
are first expressed as percentage of the total value of all the categories.

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 Sales

1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
4th Qtr

Sales of a shop in different quarters of a year (in percentage)

b) Frequency Diagram:
Data in the form of grouped frequency distributions are generally represented by
frequency diagrams like histogram, frequency polygon, frequency curve and
ogive.

i. Histogram: A histogram is a two dimensional diagram. It is a set of

rectangles with base as the intervals between class boundaries (along X-
axis) and with areas proportional to the class frequency. If the class
intervals are of equal width, which they generally are, the area of the
rectangles are proportional to their respective frequencies. However, in
some type of data, it is convenient, at times necessary, to use varying
width of class intervals.

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ii. Frequency Polygon: A frequency polygon is a plane bounded by straight
lines, usually four or more lines. Frequency polygon is an alternative to
histogram and is also derived from histogram itself. A frequency polygon
can be fitted to a histogram for studying the shape of the curve. The
simplest method of drawing a frequency polygon is to join the midpoints
of the topside of the consecutive rectangles of the histogram. It leaves us
with the two ends away from the base line, denying the calculation of the
area under the curve. The solution is to join the two end-points thus
obtained to the base line at the mid-values of the two classes with zero
frequency immediately at each end of the distribution. Broken lines or
dots may join the two ends with the base line. Now the total area under
the curve, like the area in the histogram, represents the total frequency or
sample size.

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 c) Arithmetic Line Graph:
An arithmetic line graph is also called time series graph. In this graph, time
(hour, day/date, week, month, year, etc.) is plotted along x-axis and the value of
the variable (time series data) along y-axis.

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A line graph by joining these plotted points, thus, obtained is called arithmetic
line graph (time series graph). It helps in understanding the trend, periodicity,
etc., in a long term time series data.

Significance of Data Presentation

Data Presentation could be both can be a deal maker or deal breaker based on
the delivery of the content in the context of visual depiction. Data Presentation
tools are powerful communication tools that can simplify the data by making it
easily understandable & readable at the same time while attracting & keeping
the interest of its readers and effectively showcase large amounts of complex
data in a simplified manner. If the user can create an insightful presentation of
the data in hand with the same sets of facts and figures, then the results promise
to be impressive.

There have been situations where the user has had a great amount of data and
vision for expansion but the presentation drowned his/her vision. To impress the
higher management and top brass of a firm, effective presentation of data is
needed. Data Presentation helps the clients or the audience to not spend time
grasping the concept and the future alternatives of the business and to convince
them to invest in the company & turn it profitable both for the investors & the
company.

Major Significance of Data Presentation Techniques are as follows:

1. Quick and clear understanding of the information: Data visualization

provides us with a quick, clear understanding of the information. Thanks
to graphic representations, we can visualize large volumes of data in an
understandable and coherent way, which in turn helps us comprehend the
information and draw conclusions and insights. This helps us save time
and lets us solve problems more efficiently.

2. Helps in identifying emerging trends and act accordingly: Information

design helps us identify emerging trends and act quickly based on what
we see. These trends make more sense when they are graphically
represented; that is, visuals and diagrams make it easier for us to detect
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 highly correlated parameters. Some relationships are obvious, but others
must be identified and highlighted to help our customers focus on a
specific data point, which may influence the decisions they make.

3. Helps in understanding potential outcomes: The inclusion of pictures,

charts, graphs and tables in the presentation help for better understanding
the potential outcomes.

4. Helps in identifying relationships and patterns within digital assets:

The presentation of graphics and data enables us to identify relationships
and patterns within digital assets, since discerning trends in the data gives
us a competitive advantage when it comes to factors that may be affecting
product quality, or that may help us solve larger problems.

5. Helps in creating a narrative: Data storytelling allows us to develop a

new business language so that we can share our story with others. It is a
medium that enables us to easily create a narrative through graphics and
diagrams, through which, with the help of visual analytics, we can
uncover new insights and engage others.

6. Helps in Analysis of Data: Data presentation provides us with analysis at

various levels of detail. People want evidence of underlying analysis;
even if they don’t understand the breakdown of the analytics, they want
evidence that there is data behind it, because these stories are more
convincing than a mere personal experience.

7. Helps in Comparison with competitors: An effective presentation

would allow the organization to determine the difference with the fellow
organization and acknowledge its flaws. Comparison of data would assist
them in decision making.

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 Conclusion

We can conclude that data visualization is delivering information in the most

efficient way. Initially, the raw data gathered is modeled and delivered for
effective data-driven decisions. Going deeper into the matter we’ll see that data
scientists working in the field of data analytics create multiple machine learning
algorithms to analyze and compile the essential data into visual objects.

In such a way they shape the information into images in a universal, fast, and
effective manner. It helps businesses, and not only, identify the areas that
require improvements, the factors that influence customer behavior, and the
options to improve sales. The role of data visualization in e-commerce and
business is crucial for business owners, stakeholders, and decision-makers since
it allows them to make better predictions in sales and overall business
processes. Recognizing the patterns faster due to the graphical or pictorial
forms, the future development of the company can be estimated with better
accuracy and optimized if it’s necessary in a due time.

When it comes to some complex projects, images speak louder than words as
well. So, when a collected data is properly visualized, it can be better
understood. What is more, it helps to monitor the processes within the project
and ensure they go the right way.

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 Bibliography

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5453888/
 https://www.netquest.com/blog/en/five-advantages-of-data-visualization
 https://analyticstraininghub.com/data-presentation-types-
importance/#:~:text=Data%20Presentation%20helps%20the%20clients,fo
r%20the%20investors%20%26%20the%20company.
 https://www.thoughtco.com/frequently-used-statistics-graphs-4158380

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