Madeline's Graphing Post

Types of Graphs:

1. Bar Graphs

Advantages:

• visually strong


• can easily compare two or three data set

Disadvantages:

• graph categories can be reordered to emphasize certain effects
  

2. Double Bar Graph

Advantages:

• it's good for comparing two sets of data, to see the difference of the two data

Disadvantages:

• the intervals can be hard to find where the exact bar is

3. Line/double line graph

Advantages:

• is best for showing data overtime


• also good for finding the trend

Disadvantages:

• depending on the interval, finding the exact data can be difficult unless it is shown

4. Circle Graph

Advantages:

• visually appealing


• shows percent of total for each category

Disadvantages:

• no exact numerical data


• hard to compare two sets of data


• the "other" category can be a problem


• total unknown unless specified


• best for 3-7 categories


• use only with discrete data

5. Pictograph

Advantages:

• easy to read


• visually appealing


• handles large data sets easily using keyed icons

Disadvantages:

• hard to quantify partial icons


• icons must be of consistent size


• best for only 2-6 categories


• very simplistic
  

Distorting the Graphs:

1. Distorting the scale - a break in the y-axis - can be showed as:


2. Distorting the visual(pictograph)
   




3. Distorting the size of the bars

Questions:

2. a) A bar graph and a line graph can show the data more accurately.

b) Yes, I would continue because the sales go up each week and both graphs show a trend.

4. I would choose the line graph because it shows the trend increasing.

a)