Chapter 6 · Practice 1 of 3
Number and caption every figure and table, and refer to each in the text
Why it matters
Every figure and table needs:
- A number, usually by chapter: Figure 4.2 is the second figure in chapter 4.
- A caption that says what it shows. Many departments put figure captions below the figure and table captions above the table; the University of Lahore's Islamabad campus guidelines, for example, ask for exactly that.
- A mention in the text before it appears: "Figure 4.2 shows the sync flow when the phone reconnects."
Add a list of figures and a list of tables after the table of contents if your template asks for them. Word processors and LaTeX can generate both automatically if you use their caption features rather than typing numbers by hand.
Do
- Use the built-in caption feature so numbers update automatically
- Introduce each figure in the text before it appears
Avoid
- Figures dropped into the report with no explanation