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Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

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Page 1: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

Numeracy & Quantitative Methods:

Numeracy for Professional Purposes

Laura Lake

Page 2: 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

Page 3: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

• 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

Page 4: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

• 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

Page 5: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

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

Page 6: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

• 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

Page 7: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

Bad Bar Chart Bad Bar Chart ExampleExample

Page 8: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

Good Bar Chart Good Bar Chart ExampleExample

Chart 1: Age of survey participants, 2011

Source: A research company, 2011

Page 9: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

• 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

Page 10: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

Bad Pie Chart Bad Pie Chart ExampleExample

% ?

Page 11: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

Good Bar Chart Good Bar Chart ExampleExample

Chart 2: Number of hours worked by survey participants, 2011

Source: A research company, 2011

Page 12: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

Good Bar Chart Good Bar Chart ExampleExample

Chart 3: Number of hours worked by survey participants, 2011

Source: A research company, 2011

Page 13: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

• 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

Page 14: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

Bad Line Graph Bad Line Graph ExampleExample

Page 15: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

Good Line Graph Good Line Graph ExampleExample

Chart 4: Tons Exported (thousands), 2001 to 2011

Source: A research company, 2011

Page 16: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

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

Page 17: Numeracy & Quantitative Methods: Numeracy for Professional Purposes Laura Lake

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/).

The resource, where specified below, contains other 3rd party materials under their own licenses. The licenses and attributions are outlined below:

1. The name of the University of Plymouth and its logos are unregistered trade marks of the University. The University reserves all rights to these items beyond their inclusion in these CC resources.

2. The JISC logo, the and the logo of the Higher Education Academy are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -non-commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK England & Wales license. All

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

Back page originally developed by the OER phase 1 C-Change project

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