Draw a three-column table on your graph paper. Label the first column, "Class Limits," then label the second column, "Frequency," and then label the third column, "Cumulative Frequency."
Write the class limits you want in column 1. Class limits are your categories. For example, if you are making a frequency distribution table of IQ scores, you might choose to have class limits of below 80, 81-100, 101-120, 121-140, 141-160 and 161 and higher.
Tally the number of items in your data that match each class limit, and then record the result in column 2. For example, you might have 10 IQ scores that fall into the class limit of 121-140, so you would write "10" in column 2 next to the 121-140 class limit.
Find the first entry in column 2 and then transfer that amount to the first row in the cumulative frequency column. For example, if you had 5 people with IQ scores below 80, you would write "80" in both the frequency column and the cumulative frequency column.
Add the second entry in the frequency column to the number you just wrote in the cumulative frequency column. For example, if the second entry in the frequency column is 3, 3 + 5 = 8, so write "8" in the cumulative frequency column.
Continue down the columns, adding each number in the frequency column to each number in the cumulative frequency column -- until the cumulative frequency column has been filled.