This formulaic approach to the first sentence can save an author hours of head-pounding to craft the most important ten to thirty words in the entire paper. This tells the reader very little and should not be imitated. Let's go back to the first sentence that we constructed, and let's assume it went on to say that Atomic adsorption analyses of 54 avocados sampled from groves in Florida and Georgia, coupled with previously published groundwater analyses, show that concentrations of alkali metals in avocados are proportional to springtime concentration of those elements in shallow groundwater. Figures are photographs, sketches, or drafted illustrations. They contain more than words and numbers.
Tables are lists of words or numbers arranged in rows and columns.
Figures have captions at the bottom and often have explanatory legends within their fields. Tables have titles at the top, and they may have notes at the bottom providing information necessary to understand the material. Tables do note, however, have captions. The caption of a figure should describe the figure. A rigorous caption would begin with words like Plot of C and O isotopic compositions of Pohick Valley carbonates . . . .