Tables with lots of text

Question

I have really limited LaTeX skills. Trying to make a table that looks like this, but couldn't figure out how:

Attempting to use booktabs for horizontal lines, tabu for dealing with column widths (I have a few more tables to make in my dissertation).

    \begin{table}[h]
    \caption{Interpretive and critical research paradigms for design research (adopted from \citealt{crouch2012doing})
    \label{crouch}
    \begin{tabu} to 1.0\linewidth { | X[l] | X[l] | X[l] | }
        \toprule
Research Paradigm       & Interpretive                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              & Critical                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   \\
Epistemology / Ontology & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}l@{}}It is only possible to represent aspects of social reality.\\ Researcher is a subjective observer.\\ The world is open to interpretation.\end{tabular}                                                                                         & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}l@{}}The world is characterised by inequalities because the lifeworld is systemically colonised.\\ Ideology is all-pervasive.\\ Knowledge implies action.\end{tabular}                                               \\
Researcher’s role       & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}l@{}}Engage with other people’s lives\\ Enable the ‘voices’ of others to be heard\end{tabular}                                                                                                                                                      & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}l@{}}Critically observe design practices\\ Engage with other people’s lives\\ Initiate or facilitate change\end{tabular}                                                                                             \\
Research purpose        & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}l@{}}To explore the habitus of designers and users, in,interaction with the field\\ To interpret design practices, objects and systems\\ To understand how the designer or the user engages with design practices, objects and systems\end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}l@{}}To disrupt, emancipate, transform the habitus and field of design\\ To explore how the user is affected by design practices, objects and systems\\ To change design practices, objects and systems\end{tabular} \\
Underlying values       & Plurality 
        \bottomrule
    \end{tabu}
\end{table}

Can anyone guide me?

Answer 1

A way with tabular and p column type:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\title{Test121212}
\author{Konstantinos Leledakis}
\date{March 2019}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[h]
    \caption{Interpretive and critical research paradigms for design research (adopted from \ldots%\citealt{crouch2012doing}
    )}
    \label{crouch}
    \begin{tabular}{  l  p{3.4cm}  p{3.4cm} }
        \toprule
\textbf{Research Paradigm}      
& \textbf{Interpretive}   
& \textbf{Critical} \\\midrule
Epistemology / Ontology 
& It is only possible to represent aspects of social reality. Researcher is a subjective observer. The world is open to interpretation.        
& The world is characterised by inequalities because the lifeworld is systemically colonised. Ideology is all-pervasive. Knowledge implies action. \\\hline
Researcher’s role       
& Engage with other people’s lives Enable the ‘voices’ of others to be heard                         
& Critically observe design practices Engage with other people’s lives Initiate or facilitate change  \\\hline
Research purpose        
& To explore the habitus of designers and users, in,interaction with the field To interpret design practices, objects and systems To understand how the designer or the user engages with design practices, objects and systems 
& To disrupt, emancipate, transform the habitus and field of design To explore how the user is affected by design practices, objects and systems To change design practices, \\\hline
objects and systems &
Underlying values       
& Plurality \\
        \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

PS: p column type is created for such cases and provide automatic "linebreaks" on the cell contents of the column. You could use m in the place of p to have vertically centered the cells of each row.

PS2: Just showing a way... but to be honest I would make more improvements in the table in order to get a beautiful table, But I think this is what you are after in order of learning "How" at this moment.

Answer 2

Here is some code for a table that spans several pages (I reduced its length). It uses the packages caption, tabularx, longtable and tabu (this allows the table's header on the first page, and footer on the last page, to be different from all other headers/footers, e.g. "continued from previous page" and "continued on next page"). (some other table-related packages

   \documentclass{scrartcl}
%    \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
    \usepackage{tabularx}
    \usepackage{longtable, tabu}
\usepackage{ltablex}
\usepackage{ltxtable}
    \usepackage{booktabs, caption, apacite}
    \usepackage{hhline, blindtext}

    \begin{document}
    %\begin{center}
%\begin{center}
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{p{1.7cm} | p{2.5cm} | p{4cm} | X}
\caption{Literature on Industrial Diversification (Overview) \label{overview_industrial}}\\
\hline \hline
Study       &Sample, Data   & Specifications        &Results \\ \hline \hline \endfirsthead%
%\caption{Literature on Industrial Diversification (Overview, continued from previous page) }\\
\multicolumn{4}{l}{Continued from previous page}\\
\hline \hline
Study       &Sample, Data Source    & Specifications        &Results \\ \hline \hline \endhead%
\multicolumn{4}{r}{Continued on next page}\\
\endfoot%
\endlastfoot%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
  \textbf{Research Paradigm}      
    & \textbf{Interpretive}   
    & \textbf{Critical} \\ \hline \hline
    Epistemology / Ontology 
    & It is only possible to represent aspects of social reality. Researcher is a subjective observer. The world is open to interpretation.        
    & The world is characterised by inequalities because the lifeworld is systemically colonised. Ideology is all-pervasive. Knowledge implies action. \\\hline
    Researcher’s role       
    & Engage with other people’s lives Enable the ‘voices’ of others to be heard                         
    & Critically observe design practices Engage with other people’s lives Initiate or facilitate change  \\ \hline
    Research purpose        
    & To explore the habitus of designers and users, in,interaction with the field To interpret design practices, objects and systems To understand how the designer or the user engages with design practices, objects and systems 
    & To disrupt, emancipate, transform the habitus and field of design To explore how the user is affected by design practices, objects and systems To change design practices, \\ \hline
  \textbf{Research Paradigm}      
    & \textbf{Interpretive}   
    & \textbf{Critical} \\ \hline \hline
    Epistemology / Ontology 
    & It is only possible to represent aspects of social reality. Researcher is a subjective observer. The world is open to interpretation.        
    & The world is characterised by inequalities because the lifeworld is systemically colonised. Ideology is all-pervasive. Knowledge implies action. \\\hline
    Researcher’s role       
    & Engage with other people’s lives Enable the ‘voices’ of others to be heard                         
    & Critically observe design practices Engage with other people’s lives Initiate or facilitate change  \\ \hline
    Research purpose        
    & To explore the habitus of designers and users, in,interaction with the field To interpret design practices, objects and systems To understand how the designer or the user engages with design practices, objects and systems 
    & To disrupt, emancipate, transform the habitus and field of design To explore how the user is affected by design practices, objects and systems To change design practices, \\ \hline
  \textbf{Research Paradigm}      
    & \textbf{Interpretive}   
    & \textbf{Critical} \\ \hline \hline
    Epistemology / Ontology 
    & It is only possible to represent aspects of social reality. Researcher is a subjective observer. The world is open to interpretation.        
    & The world is characterised by inequalities because the lifeworld is systemically colonised. Ideology is all-pervasive. Knowledge implies action. \\\hline
    Researcher’s role       
    & Engage with other people’s lives Enable the ‘voices’ of others to be heard                         
    & Critically observe design practices Engage with other people’s lives Initiate or facilitate change  \\ \hline
    Research purpose        
    & To explore the habitus of designers and users, in,interaction with the field To interpret design practices, objects and systems To understand how the designer or the user engages with design practices, objects and systems 
    & To disrupt, emancipate, transform the habitus and field of design To explore how the user is affected by design practices, objects and systems To change design practices,
                \\ \hline
something   &something something
                    &sample text
                    &\begin{minipage}[t][]{\linewidth}\begin{itemize} \item first element in list
        \item second one
        \item and so on
        \end{itemize}\end{minipage}
                \\  \hline \hline
\end{tabularx}
%\end{center}
    %\end{center}
    \end{document} 

Answer 3

i would use tabularx (as proposed @Marie. P. in his answer +1) instead tabu package, rules from the booktabs package (as use @koleygr in his answer +1), ragged2e package for better filling available spaces in cells and the makecell package for column headers and additional vertical space in cells.

since you not provide any information which document class you use and about page layout in your documents, i select article and define page layout with geometry package.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{geometry}

\usepackage{ragged2e}
\usepackage{booktabs, makecell, tabularx}
\renewcommand\theadfont{\small\bfseries}
\renewcommand\theadgape{}
\setcellgapes{3pt}
\newcolumntype{L}{>{\RaggedRight}X}
\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{#1}}
\usepackage{caption}
\captionsetup[table]{position=above, skip=0.5ex}

\title{Test121212}
\author{Konstantinos Leledakis}
\date{March 2019}

%---------------- show page layout. don't use in a real document!
\usepackage{showframe}
\renewcommand\ShowFrameLinethickness{0.15pt}
\renewcommand*\ShowFrameColor{\color{red}}
%---------------------------------------------------------------%

\begin{document}
    \begin{table}[h]
\caption{Interpretive and critical research paradigms for design research (adopted from \ldots%\citealt{crouch2012doing}
    )}
\label{crouch}
\makegapedcells
\setlength\tabcolsep{4pt}
%    \small
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{} P{21mm} L L @{}}
    \toprule
\thead[lb]{Research\\ Paradigm}
    &   \thead[b]{Interpretive}
        &   \thead{Critical}                                                \\
    \midrule
Epistemology/ Ontology
    &   It is only possible to represent aspects of social reality. Researcher is a subjective observer. The world is open to interpretation.
        &   The world is characterised by inequalities because the lifeworld is systemically colonised. Ideology is all-pervasive. Knowledge implies action.     \\
Researcher’s role
    &   Engage with other people’s lives Enable the ‘voices’ of others to be heard
        &   Critically observe design practices Engage with other people’s lives Initiate or facilitate change                                                   \\
Research purpose
    &   To explore the habitus of designers and users, in,interaction with the field To interpret design practices, objects and systems To understand how the designer or the user engages with design practices, objects and systems
        &   To disrupt, emancipate, transform the habitus and field of design To explore how the user is affected by design practices, objects and systems To change design practices,
                                                                            \\
objects and systems
    &   Underlying values
        &   Plurality                                                       \\
    \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
    \end{table}

which gives:

you may consider also to use smaller font size, for example \small. in this case the filling of cells is better and may happen, that will have less text lines.