{"id":257,"date":"2015-11-08T14:46:09","date_gmt":"2015-11-08T14:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/temp.smartfantasyandscifi.com\/blog\/?p=257"},"modified":"2016-03-11T12:54:41","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T12:54:41","slug":"organise-your-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/2015\/11\/08\/organise-your-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Organise Your Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

Analysing results can be boring. The experiment is basically complete and you want it out of the way as soon as possible. However, it is likely that even if the results are bad you will be back one day staring at the spreadsheet trying to interpret what it all meant<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When you write papers or your thesis you won\u2019t remember which of your myriad spreadsheets are the ones you want. Therefore, it is best to keep a consistent layout across projects and title every column and row so they are instantly recognisable when you return to them.<\/p>\nGet Practical Tips<\/span>

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  1. In Excel, keep a copy of all your graphs on a separate sheet (not a separate document), which should be labelled graphs<\/em>. Then you can instantly see if a\u00a0spreadsheet contains good data or not.<\/li>\n
  2. Label all your graphs with the maximum amount of information. Don\u2019t leave the axis as x<\/em> or y<\/em> or % Change<\/em>. They are meaningless. Write exactly what you measured in the axes.<\/li>\n
  3. Try as much as possible to utilise (and title) different sheets (again NOT different documents) for different tables of data. If you have to scroll through thousands of lines of data with other tables beneath and to the side, it quickly becomes uninterpretable.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/b>
    \nRead Personal Perspective<\/span>