1. Tables

Columns and rows

Tables are divided into columns and rows. Students are sometimes confused about this, but columns run down the page and rows run across it. Think of the columns in a Roman or Creek temple, which run from the top to the bottom of the building.

A) the first thing that you should do when reading any table is to read the title. This is obvious when you think about it, but people tend to ignore the obvious when it comes to tables;

B) the next thing that you should do is look for any notes about the table. These are usually underneath it. In this case, you will see that one of the notes relates specifically to the title;

C) the final note is one that gives the original source of the data. This is often a very useful piece of information;

D) you can now turn to the main body of the table: but do not look at any numbers yet. Look at the headings along the top and down the left-hand side of the table;

E) by now you should have a very clear idea about the kinds of things that the table is trying to show you, even before you have looked at a single number. By far the best approach to the actual numbers in a table is to use the method called eyeballing. Simply cast your eyes down and across the table, looking for the biggest numbers. In this table, the columns are the important things, as all the numbers are totaled at the bottom. Eyeballing is a very useful technique for summarizing a table. Ignoring numbers after a decimal point, ignoring odd hundreds, and so on allow you to scan the table and immediately identify its most significant features. The largest and smallest figures stand out from all the others. See an example in Figure 1*.

Figure 1.*

Distribution of beneficiaries of home medical-social services by administrative-territorial regions and type of locality (in absolute numbers)

Categories of beneficiaries	Vitebsk region			Grodno region
	Regional center	Area centers	Rural localities	Regional center	Area centers	Rural localities	TOTALLY
Single old citizens	35	45	51	22	29	80	262
Solo living old citizens	27	37	64	13	16	100	257
Single disabled people of Ι and ΙΙ groups	7	9	14	5	7	18	60
Solo living disabled people of Ι and ΙΙ groups	4	7	20	7	10	13	61
TOTALLY	73	98	149	47	62	211	640

Source: Belarusian Red-Cross «Studying demands of solely living, single old people and disabled people in medical-social home services in Vitebsk and Grodno regions»