This article is a primer on how to tabulate, organize, and document data for people who don’t have much experience with it.1 I will introduce you to some basic concepts and terms that are common to data work and data organization. Any examples will have an educational tint, but that’s just because I often work with educators. The framework sketched here will apply to most other kinds of data. I’ll assume spreadsheet software is the tool you will likely use for entering and organizing the data, because spreadsheets are widely available and familiar to most people.