© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Guide to College Reading, 6/e Kathleen T. McWhorter Chapter 11 Reading Graphic and Electronic Information

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers This Chapter Will Show You How to:  Approach graphic information  Use and interpret electronic information

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers What Do Graphics Do?  Condense  Clarify  Convince

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Five Kinds of Graphics Illustrations  Diagrams  Tables  Maps  Graphs  Flowcharts

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Diagrams  A diagram is an outline drawing or picture of an object or a process.

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Tables  A table is a listing of facts and figures in columns and rows for quick and easy reference. Baseball Scores Game 1Game 2 Yankees64 Mets23

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers How to Read a Table  First, read the title for the topic.  Then, read the footnotes to judge the source.  Determine what each column represents and how they interact.

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Maps  Traditional maps: Show the location of cities, waterways, sites, and roads. Show differences in the physical terrain of specified areas.  Modern maps: Highlight special characteristics. Highlight population distributions of a particular area.

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers How to Read a Map  Note the title, source, and date.  Study the legend for meanings of symbols and shading.

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Pie Graphs  Pie Graph: Is a circle that is divided into wedge-shaped slices. The complete pie or circle represents a total, or 100 percent. Each slice is a percent or fraction of that whole.

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Bar Graphs  Bar Graph: A series of horizontal or vertical bars in which the length of each bar represents a particular amount or number of what is being discussed. A series of different items can be quickly compared by noting the different bar lengths.

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Line Graphs  Line Graphs: A continuous curve or frequency distribution in which numbers are plotted in an unbroken line. The horizontal scale measures one aspect of the date. The vertical line measures another aspect. As the data fluctuate, the line will change direction and will become very jagged.

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers How to Read Graphic Material Part (1) Read the title to get an overview.

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers How to Read Graphic Material Part (2) Look for the footnotes and read italicized introductory material:  Identify the who, where, and how.  How and when were the data collected?

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers How to Read Graphic Material Part (3)  Who collected the data?  How many persons were included in the survey?  Do the researchers seem to have been objective or biased?  Considering the above information, does the study seem valid?

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers How to Read Graphic Material Part (4) Read the labels:  What do the vertical columns and the horizontal rows represent?  Are the numbers in thousands or millions?  What does the legend represent?

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers How to Read Graphic Material Part (5) Notice the trends and find the extremes:  What are the highest and lowest rates?  What is the average rate?  How do the extremes compare with the total?  What is the percentage of increase or decrease?

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers How to Read Graphic Material Part (5) Draw conclusions and formulate future exam questions:  What does the information mean?  What needs to be done with the information?  What wasn’t included?  Where do we go from here?

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Longman Publishers Visit the Longman Companion Website Take a Road Trip to Wall Street! Be sure to visit the Graphics and Visual Aids module in your Reading Road Trip CD-ROM for multimedia tutorials, exercises, and tests. Be sure to visit the Reading Road Trip CD-ROM for multimedia tutorials, exercises, and tests.