1. How (not) to present data Paula Surridge School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies University of Bristol

2.  Good graphs should:  Convey the data visually without the need for further explanation  Be appropriate for the type of data  Have appropriate scales and labels  Be as simple as possible to convey the data  Avoid 3D effects and complex colour schemes  Just because Excel can do it doesn’t mean you should do it Presenting data using graphs

3. Bad pie chart: Example 1 Source: http://www.researchwallofshame.com/

4. Bad pie chart: Example 2 Based on an actual pie chart used by a Fox TV station in the USA. See http://flowingdata.com/2009/11/26/fox-news-makes-the-best-pie-chart-ever/ http://flowingdata.com/2009/11/26/fox-news-makes-the-best-pie-chart-ever/

5. Bad bar chart [Graph removed for copyright reasons. Original on page 17 of “The social situation in the European Union 2005-2006” The European Commission]“The social situation in the European Union 2005-2006”

6. Example: Good column chart

8.  Reading  Bryman, A. (2008) Social Research Methods  De Vaus, D. (1996) Surveys in Social Research  Bad graphs examples:  http://flowingdata.com/category/statistics/mistaken-data/ http://flowingdata.com/category/statistics/mistaken-data/  http://www.researchwallofshame.com/  Data used for tables and charts:  Social Trends 39  British Social Attitudes Survey 2007 Sources and further reading