Where to put statistical signifance test results
I’m writing on my master thesis/dissertation and performed Chi-square tests to my check for statistical significance. I'll present the results of these tests in a table.
Now I’m wondering if I should include this table in my dissertation's main part or in an appendix. The table is rather long (half a page), so the appendix-approach would save space. However, I’m not sure if that’s something you should do as these test results are, of course, important to back up my findings.
What’s the best practice for that?
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2 answers
This is not an opinion based on academic practice, but on general writing principles:
If you think that the typical reader is going to want to read the table when they get to it, include it inline since it creates an inconvenience to the reader to have to go look for it in the appendix. If you think the typical reader is not going to want to read the table when they get to it in the text, put it in an appendix since it is inconvenient for the reader to skip over something they are not going to read.
In other words, design your text to minimize the number of hops, skips, and jumps the typical reader will have to make to read your text. Things that only a few readers will want, or that a typical reader might want only occasionally, should be out of line. Everything else should be inline.
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Half a page is not that much, unless you have a very strict limit in term of page number. Since the results are important to back up your findings, it's probably a good idea to show them in the main part, where they are most relevant. Having it in your main part would let you reference the table directly, that could be a pro.
Of course you don't have to discuss the table in-depth if you don't think it fits within your dissertation. Eventually, you could leave those kind of remarks to the appendix.
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