(This article by Naomi Robbins was originally published at Effective Graphs.)
Since it is tax day I chose a chart from the IRS for my comments today. Figure 1 shows the chart with the labels cropped out. The wedges of a pie chart add to 100%. Please estimate the percentage of each wedge without the help of labels. Also, please list the wedges in size order. The next page will show the same chart with the labels, but I want you to see for yourself why I call this chart misleading.
Please comment on the article here: Effective Graphs
