2. start with… As always, purpose needs to be considered:
PURPOSE OF DATA DISPLAYS. ALL OF THEM. The reason for these displays—rather then just putting numbers in your paragraphs—is to help your readers VISUALIZE info.
PURPOSE OF YOUR DISPLAY? What do you hope to prove with this data? How will looking at the data visually help make your point? What’s the most crucial point you need to convey with the particular data display you’re working on?

3. pie charts - Show pieces of a whole; represent percentages
- Always label your pie slices
- Must have 100%
Figure 2: Leading Causes of Death for Youth and Adults (2003)

4. simple bar charts used to represent one data group Number of viruses
Year

5. complex bar charts
used to represent more than one data group

6. complex bar charts

7. line graphs
used to plot interval data

8. line graphs

9. scatter plots
used to plot data points

10. data maps
follow spatial contours; used to geographically/spatially represent data

11. data maps

12. pictograms or pictographs
data represented by pictures

13. bad, bad data displays

14. bad, bad data displays

15. bad, bad data displays

16. bad, bad data displays

17. bad, bad data displays

18. bad, bad data displays
And what I thought was my favorite…

19. bad, bad data displays
Until I saw this!
100%

20. Some data: Weekly Beverage Consumption
Matching graph to purpose
Some data: Weekly Beverage Consumption
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
SUN
coffee 35 10 9 29 24
Soft drinks 34 43 37
Fruit juice 30 39 4 20 12
water 42 15

21. Line chart?
While this does show change across time, it gives us little visual info. It doesn't really serve any purpose

22. Pie chart?
If the purpose of the data is to reveal trends in overall consumption, a pie chart is inappropriate. It should only be used to reveal percentages

23. Bar chart?
if the data is supposed to compare consumption across the week, a bar chart would work best

24. Stacked bar chart!
This kind of bar chart, however, shows both a comparison of percentages and consumption across time. The most information can be determined from this chart.

25. creating data displays
launch Microsoft Word
in a new document, select Insert  Picture  Chart
create displays for the data you have decided on from the data sets online
Open the data entry table and enter your data; the chart will automatically be created as a bar chart.
Click on the “chart type” icon. Choose the appropriate chart type.

26. anatomy of a chart

27. anatomy of a chart Title should be large and comprehensive
Be sure the legend is visible
X Axis - If you have non-numerical data, it goes here
Y Axis – always numerical

28. Last Thoughts
While this may seem like a relatively simple set of tasks, it really is harder than one might think. It also is more time consuming that you might think. Take advantage of class time!!
refer back to this PowerPoint to make sure you’re using the correct display for your data
make sure to title and label your data displays appropriately (Word, Excel, and whatever other applications you use might provide some template/help with this, but you might have to access deeper features to add labels not default-offered by the application)