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Numeracy & Quantitative Methods:
Numeracy for Professional Purposes
Laura Lake
• Same principles at tables apply:
•Purpose is to present summary evidence that supports the discussions, conclusions or inferences outlined in the research report.
• Care taken in:
1. selecting the data the chart will represent
2. how the chart is designed.
Charts - PurposeCharts - Purpose
• Charts are a valuable way of visually presenting data
• Good for:• showing the distribution of data
• displaying trends and comparisons
• showing either of these with small number of values
• Not so good for:
• showing a particular set of values (tables more suitable)
• showing large number of values
Charts – PurposeCharts – Purpose
• Many different chart types but the most familiar types are:
• bar charts
• pie charts
• line graphs
• With these there are general and specific rules to follow about presenting charts
Chart TypesChart Types
Checklist:
• Clear title – what the chart shows plus geographic area covered, time period, and units of measurement
• Data source
• Colours – when using make sure they are easy to distinguish from one another
• Labels – label key values and include a legend
Displaying ChartsDisplaying Charts
• Bars can be either vertical or horizontal and can show single or a cluster of variables.
• Width of bars needs to be equal.
•Axis start at zero.
• Logical order e.g. by size unless there is another natural order (time, age etc.).
Displaying Bar Displaying Bar ChartsCharts
Bad Bar Chart Bad Bar Chart ExampleExample
Good Bar Chart Good Bar Chart ExampleExample
Chart 1: Age of survey participants, 2011
Source: A research company, 2011
• Limit the number of pie slices
• Order the data
• Better for single variable analysis. For comparisons of a variable between a factor such as males and females, bar charts are more appropriate.
Displaying Pie Displaying Pie ChartsCharts
Bad Pie Chart Bad Pie Chart ExampleExample
% ?
Good Bar Chart Good Bar Chart ExampleExample
Chart 2: Number of hours worked by survey participants, 2011
Source: A research company, 2011
Good Bar Chart Good Bar Chart ExampleExample
Chart 3: Number of hours worked by survey participants, 2011
Source: A research company, 2011
• Include axis labels and start axis start at zero.
• The height of the vertical axis should be just larger than the largest value being plotted
• Can use more than one line (e.g. for responses to a variable by different companies, ages, geographical locations and so on).
Displaying Line Displaying Line GraphsGraphs
Bad Line Graph Bad Line Graph ExampleExample
Good Line Graph Good Line Graph ExampleExample
Chart 4: Tons Exported (thousands), 2001 to 2011
Source: A research company, 2011
Bryman, A. (2008) Social Research Methods. 3rd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
David, M. and Sutton, C. (2011) Social Research : An Introduction. 2nd ed. London: Sage.
ReferencesReferences
This resource was created by the University of Plymouth, Learning from WOeRk project. This project is funded by HEFCE as part of the HEA/JISC OER release programme.
This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/).
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reproductions must comply with the terms of that license.
Author Laura Lake
Institute University of Plymouth
TitleNumeracy & Quantitative MethodsNumeracy for Professional Purposes
Description Presenting tables and charts 2
Date Created May 2011
Educational Level Undergraduate
Keywords
Learning from WOeRK Work Based Learning WBL Continuous Professional Development CPD Research UKOER LFWOER Bar charts, pie charts,, line graphs
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