When I do scientific writing I find good examples from the literature I like and use them as a crutch for my own figures.  What was good about the layout?  How was the figure caption worded?   Stand on the shoulders of those who came before…..  Here are some nice examples from my papers and others.  As I see nice figures this semester I will post them.

 

Here is an example of a simple figure. A  figure caption for it and then writing about the data. Along with some do’s and don’ts. Brian

 

Figure 1.  Arsenic (ug/L) versus Depth at Site F.
Data (both descriptions below are good depending on your goals)

Wordy version

Arsenic concentrations were 0.54 ug/L at 5.8m depth and then increased slowly to 42.38 ug/L at 15.08 meters, increased more rapidly to 182.72 ug/L at 19.35 m and then increased slowly to 203.24 ug/L at 25.35 m (Figure 1).

Shorter version

Arsenic concentrations increase with depth from 0.54 ug/L at 5.8m depth to 203.24 ug/L at 25.35 m (Figure 1).

 

Writing about data in a figure.

• A figure doesn’t show or tell. Try not to write Figure 1 shows arsenic data.  The data in figure 1 explains arsenic.  These are bad options.
• The data is the data and the figure is a way of showing it to people!
• So describe the data and then reference the figure. Use details and numbers!   Says if it is increasing, decreasing, uniform, random, peaks etc.