When prose is the wrong container
Whenever you are comparing more than two things across more than two dimensions. Prose forces a reader to hold each combination in memory while the next arrives, and by the fourth study nobody is holding anything.
A table lets them see the comparison at once and return to it later, which is exactly what a reader of a literature review wants to be able to do.
What a good table looks like
One row per thing compared, one column per dimension, and nothing in it that is not being compared. The commonest fault is a table that has become a container for everything known about each item.
Column headings should be the dimensions your argument turns on, which means the table is already an argument rather than a summary.
It still needs to be discussed
A table is not a substitute for saying what the comparison shows. Present it, then write the sentence that tells a reader what to notice: that three of four found an effect, or that the one that did not used a different measure.
Tables dropped into a document without that sentence read as evidence somebody gathered rather than as evidence somebody used.
Where it earns marks
Rubrics for literature reviews frequently ask for synthesis, and a comparison table is the most visible possible demonstration of it. It shows that you read across sources rather than through them one at a time.
It also makes gaps obvious, including to you. An empty column is a question nobody in your literature has answered, which is frequently the gap your own study addresses.
Figures are a different tool
A figure shows shape, trend or relationship. A table shows values you want a reader to compare precisely. Choosing the wrong one is common: a bar chart of four numbers is a table pretending to be interesting.
Where exact values matter, use a table. Where the pattern matters more than the numbers, use a figure.
Formatting rules apply
Every style has requirements for table numbering, titles, notes and where the caption sits relative to the table. These are scored, they are consistent, and they are frequently the last thing anybody checks.
Tables also have to be referred to by number in the text rather than by position, since a table can move during typesetting.
Keep it inside the margins
A table wider than the page is a recurring and avoidable problem. Reduce the columns rather than the font size, because a table nobody can read has not solved anything.
Where a comparison genuinely needs more columns than fit, it is usually two tables asking two questions.
The test before building one
Ask what you want the reader to be able to see at a glance. If you can answer in one sentence, that sentence is your table's purpose and the columns follow from it.
If you cannot, what you have is a collection rather than a comparison, and a table will not rescue it.
Build it before you write the section
A comparison table drafted first tells you what your section is actually going to say. The columns are the dimensions of your argument, and once they are chosen the prose has a structure to follow rather than one to invent.
Written the other way round, the table becomes a summary of paragraphs that already exist, which is where the duplication comes from. Doing it first is the difference between a table that carries the comparison and one that repeats it.
Questions this raises.
Do tables count toward my word limit?
Programs differ and many exclude them, which occasionally tempts people to move prose into tables purely to fit a limit. That produces tables full of sentences, which serve nobody and are transparently what they are. Check the rule for your own program, and then let the material rather than the word count decide which format each piece of content belongs in.
How much detail belongs in a comparison table?
Only the dimensions your argument uses. A table listing everything known about each study is a catalogue, and it obscures the comparison it was built to make. If a column is not being used in the discussion that follows, it is probably not earning its place.
Should I still describe what the table shows?
Always, in a sentence or two after presenting it. The table lets a reader verify and compare; the sentence tells them what you concluded. A table without that sentence leaves the interpretation entirely to the reader, which is the job you are being marked on.
Table or figure?
Table when exact values matter and you want them compared. Figure when the pattern, trend or relationship is the point. A common error is a chart of four numbers, where a table would be quicker to read and more precise, and the chart adds only decoration.
Where do tables go in a dissertation?
In the body, near the first mention, unless your program specifies otherwise and some do. Anything essential to the argument belongs where the argument is being made, because material in an appendix is material a reader may never open. Supplementary tables can move to the back, provided nothing in your conclusion depends on somebody having gone to look at them.
Dr. Samuel Adebayo
PhD, Education, on the capstone and dissertation side of the hall. Writes for The Footnote and coaches the students who bring this work to the desk. The rest of the specialists.
Elsewhere in the hall.
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