Why Table and Figure Formatting Gets So Much Examiner Attention
Tables and figures are among the most frequently consulted parts of a Malaysian thesis during the viva and examiner review. They carry data visually, which means errors in how they are formatted and labelled are immediately visible in a way that errors buried in paragraphs of text are not. Learning how to format figures and tables in APA for a Malaysian thesis is therefore worth taking seriously — not just as a compliance exercise but as a way of presenting your data professionally and clearly.
APA 7th edition, which most Malaysian public universities require, has specific and quite detailed rules about how tables and figures should be constructed, labelled, and referenced. Many of these rules changed or were clarified between the 6th and 7th editions, so students who have been working from older resources may have absorbed conventions that are no longer correct.
The Basic APA 7th Rules for Tables
In APA 7th, tables have a specific anatomy. The table number appears above the table in bold, on its own line — “Table 1” not “Table 1:” with a colon. The table title appears on the next line, in italics and title case, also above the table. The body of the table follows, and below the table you include any notes in a Notes section. General notes about the whole table start with “Note.” in italics. Specific notes explaining individual cells or values use superscript lowercase letters. Probability values use asterisks: * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001.
Table borders should be minimal — APA style uses only horizontal lines, not vertical ones. There should be a horizontal line at the top of the table, a horizontal line separating the column headings from the data, and a horizontal line at the bottom of the table. Vertical lines between columns are not used in APA format. If your thesis was formatted using a table style with vertical gridlines, these need to be removed.
The Basic APA 7th Rules for Figures
Figures in APA 7th include charts, graphs, photographs, maps, drawings, and any other non-table visual display of data or information. The labelling format is similar to tables but with one important difference: both the figure number and the figure title appear below the figure, not above it. The figure number is in bold — “Figure 1.” — followed on the same line by the figure title in italics. This is the opposite of the table convention, where both label and title appear above.
Below the figure title, include any notes needed to explain abbreviations, symbols, or data sources. If a figure is reproduced or adapted from another source, the note must include a copyright attribution and, where required, evidence of permission. APA 7th is explicit that reproducing or adapting a figure from a published source requires appropriate copyright acknowledgment, even if it is from an open-access publication.
Numbering Figures and Tables Consistently
When learning how to format figures and tables in APA for a Malaysian thesis, consistent numbering is a basic but frequently violated requirement. Tables and figures are numbered independently from each other — so you can have both a Table 1 and a Figure 1 in the same chapter without conflict. Some Malaysian universities require chapter-specific numbering (Table 4.1, Table 4.2 for tables in Chapter 4; Figure 4.1, Figure 4.2 for figures in Chapter 4). Others use sequential numbering throughout the entire thesis. Check your faculty’s specific guideline.
Every table and figure must be mentioned in the main text before it appears. “Table 3 shows the demographic breakdown of respondents” or “The correlation matrix is presented in Table 3.” The table or figure then appears as close to this mention as possible — ideally on the same page or the next page. A table or figure that appears without any in-text reference is floating free without context, which is both an APA error and a readability problem.
Formatting Tables Adapted From Other Sources
When you adapt a table from an existing published source — perhaps reproducing a theoretical framework or a comparison of existing studies — APA 7th requires a specific note format below the table. If you are adapting rather than reproducing directly, the note reads: “Note. Adapted from [Title of Work], by A. Author, Year, Publisher. Copyright Year by Name of Copyright Holder.” If you are reproducing it without any changes, “Reprinted from” replaces “Adapted from.”
Many Malaysian students include adapted tables in their literature review chapters without any source attribution in the note section, treating them as original creations. This is a copyright and academic integrity issue. Always attribute the original source for any table or figure that you have reproduced or adapted, regardless of whether the original source is open access.
Common APA Table and Figure Errors in Malaysian Theses
A proofreading check for how to format figures and tables in APA in your Malaysian thesis should look for several common errors. Incorrect label placement — figure titles above the figure instead of below — is among the most frequent. Missing notes sections when notes are needed. Vertical borders in tables. Inconsistent number formatting within tables, such as mixing two and three decimal places in the same column. Figure resolution too low for clear reading after printing. In-text references that say “the following table” or “the table below” rather than “Table 3” — APA requires specific numbered references, not directional ones.
Also check that all tables and figures appear in your list of tables and list of figures at the front of the thesis, and that the page numbers in those lists are accurate. This is another area where late-stage editing frequently introduces errors — when pages shift because content is added or removed, the page numbers in the list of tables and figures become outdated and need to be updated before final submission.
