Part 4: Titles, Legends, Captions
If you have several graphs, paste them all together without descriptive text. This makes it more interesting for your tutor.
Don’t write too much in the legend that describes the figure. This is what the text of the result section is for. (Make your teacher go look for it!)
Write clever legends. You have been advised to use an accurate and concise style, therefore following excerpts are great ways to start a figure legend: “This is a diagram which shows that….” or “Shows voltage vs time.”
Don’t give figure titles. Your graphs are clear anyway, and it’s obvious from the context what the graphs show. If you have to title your graphs, use titles that only make sense in the context, such as “After crush” or “chart recorder trace”. Better, use these as legends and don’t give titles. Imagine writing a monster legend like “Monophasic action potential in a toad sciatic nerve observed after crushing the nerve between the extracellular recording electrodes”. Brrr!!!
You understood the last paragraph when you now think to yourself:
- Hell, my whole report isn’t as long as this legend!
- Surely he must be kidding. Noone with half a brain would write legends as detailed.
- I think I understand… he probably means that next time I should abbrev. “After crush” with “A/C”.
If you copied a figure from a book into your report, do not supply the source. After all, YOU copied it, so it is your work.