Graphs that are not drawn to scale mislead the reader. This post shows another example of a graph where the visual representation of the numbers is not proportional to the numbers themselves.
Graphs that are not drawn to scale mislead the reader. This post shows another example of a graph where the visual representation of the numbers is not proportional to the numbers themselves.
Pie charts are rarely the best way to show data and multiple pie charts are even worse. A back-to-back bar chart presents the percentage of male and female reviewers in literary magazines collected by Vida. It shows the data in a more space efficient manner that facilitates comparisons of interest.
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. [...]
Double panel, dual axis and indexed graphs were drawn to examine the relationship of NYC Police Department stop and frisks to the number of murders in NYC. All of the graphs clearly show that the decrease in murder rate occurred before the huge increase in the number of stop and frisks.
Departing from conventions on designing and reading graphs can cause your graphs to mislead. One convention is that values increase from left to right. If you must depart from this convention, emphasize that fact.
