TABULATING DATA

P R E PA R E D B Y:
N U R S YA M I M I Z A H A R I
• Tabulating data involves counting the number of responses given for each item (question that is
asked) and putting them into a table for easy reference.

Example
• Let’s say the purpose of your report is to find out whether the facilities provided at a college
library are sufficient or not.
Figure 1: Excerpt from questionnaire regarding the choices of reading materials available at the library.

Circle the number that best represents your opinion.

    Very Satisfactory Not Poor

satisfactory satisfactory
1. What do you think of the :        
  a) Choices of newspapers available. 1 2 3 4
           
  b) Choices of reference books        
  available. 1 2 3 4
           
  c) Choices of journals and magazines        
  available. 1 2 3 4
   
 
 
• Once the questionnaires have been returned to you, you need to count the number of responses
for each item. To make it easy for you to manage your data, you can build a table like below ,
and fill in the number of responses for each item.

• Table 1 shows the number of responses of students’ perception of the choices of reading
materials available (N=total number of respondents)

  Students’ Response on the Choice of Reading Materials (N= 120)

Very
  Not
  Satisfactory
Satisfactory Satisfactory Poor
1 a. Choices of newspapers available 36 72 10 2
b.
Choices of reference books available 5 15 35 52
c. Choices of journals/magazines
available 12 22 62 21
SORTING DATA INTO CATEGORIES
• Other than conducting a survey using a questionnaire, you also interviewed several of the
respondents. Below is an excerpt of one of the questions asked during the interview.
  Interviewer : What do you think of the reading materials at the library? Is it easy to find books that you want in
the library?
 
  Participant/ There aren’t enough books… especially when we have to complete assignments. A number of the
respondent : books that are in our required reading list are not available especially the new books. We can’t afford
to buy the books as there are too many of them and they’re so expensive. Some of the books may be
available but they are usually old editions. So some information in the books is out dated or not
available. Not only that, the number of books in certain area is also limited. For example, there
aren’t many books on media law in the library if we want to refer to for assignments.
 
Sometimes the books we want are borrowed by somebody else and as there’s only a copy, we have to
wait. And most of the times, the library doesn’t inform us immediately if the book is returned. We
have to keep checking with the library often to find out about the status of the book.
 
• When sorting, you have to sift through the data. Try to look for any information that
can be used to support the factors that may contribute to the problem that you have
previously identified.
•  Some of the data that you can use as evidence in the dialogue above are as follows:

   
 Limited titles.  
 Many older editions. reasons for not enough choices of reading
 Not many new titles. materials

Thus the data you can include under the category “Reading materials” are:

• Reading materials
Students’ Response on Library Services

Very Not
  Satisfactory Satisfactory Satisfactory Poor
Newspapers 36 72 10 2
Reference Books 5 15 35 52
Journals/Magazines 12 22 62 21