7 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality your paper exactly what information might work well in tables and figures, and what information will not. Study designs, numerical data, the details of control and intervention groups, and any other material that can be assessed and compared at a glance are particularly effective in tables, and figures can provide not just illustrations of devices and details but also charts, plots and graphs that present evidence in striking visual forms. Tables and figures are only as useful as they are well designed, however, so clarity and accuracy is required in all the elements of tables and figures: columns, rows, charts and graphs should be laid out as tidily as possible to relate and separate information in a manner that avoids confusion. Any abbreviations used in a table or figure should be defined or explained in the table or figure itself because each table or figure should be comprehensible on its own, without the reader having to refer back to the text. The title of a table or the caption for a figure should also be explanatory: that is, it should describe exactly what the table or figure shows, including brief clarifications of any information about categories, values, comparisons and so on that are outlined in more detail in the paper itself. So if you’re hoping to use tables and figures, keep these basic requirements in mind as you work on your designs and only plan on using tables and figures if you are fairly certain they will successfully communicate to your readers evidence central to your study (for more information on tables and figures, see Section 5.1 below). 1.3 Argument: what does It mean and why Is It Important? Although it seems that argument sometimes plays second fiddle to other aspects of scholarly prose, a carefully constructed argument is as essential to a good academic or scientific article as methodology and evidence – indeed, the argument or thesis of a PARt I: wHAt to PUBlIsH And wHeRe to PUBlIsH It