Structuring and formatting documents

Plan

  • Why structure matters
  • Tools to structure your text
  • Heading levels
  • Word styles
  • Word templates
  • Zotero
  • Formatting tables
  • Formatting figures

Part 1 - Structuring text

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  • Part 3 - Formatting figures
  • References

    • Part 1 - Structuring text

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    Why structure matters

    • Your documents typically have readers; help them read and understand your work!
    • A cluttered text without structure can reflect or be interpreted as a lack of understanding.
    • Do it for you!

    Tools for formatting a document

    • Title
    • Headings
      • Example for research articles: Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion (IMRaD).
    • Subheadings are generally recommended!
    • Paragraphs
      • One paragraph per idea
      • Topic sentence, supporting sentences, concluding sentence.
    • Bullet points and numbered lists
    • Table of contents
    • Styles and Templates in Microsoft Word (a time saver)
    • Zotero (for formatting references)
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    Demo

    Styles and templates in Microsoft Word + Zotero

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    Part 2 - Formatting tables

    Basic rules of tables formatting

    Wilke (2019) recommends to:

    • Avoid vertical lines
    • Avoid horizontal lines between data rows.
      • Use them at the top and bottom of the table and to separate column headers from the content of the table.
    • Align text to the left.
    • Align numbers to the right and use the same number of decimals (no more than necessary) throughout.
    • Align columns containing single characters to the centre.
    • Align the column header the same way as the content of the columns.
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    Example

    Vertical alignment

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    Tips

    • Keep your tables simple
    • In some cases, you may find it easier to
      • Create your table in Excel
      • Copy it in Word (as a table, not as an image)
      • Then use Word to format the table.
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    Part 3 - Formatting figures

    • All axes should be labelled
    • Principle of proportional ink (i.e. the y-axis should start at 0).
    • Use a colour palette only if it conveys information (not usually relevant unless more than two variables are used for the figure).
    • No border
    • No shade!
    • no 3D!
    • For guidance on selecting appropriate graph types, see MGMT2505 - Working with data course (ch. 10 to 12).
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    References

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    References

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    Wilke, C. 2019. Fundamentals of Data Visualization: A Primer on Making Informative and Compelling Figures. First edition. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.
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