This week’s topics
Reading charts and tables
- Bar charts, pie charts and line graphs
- Spotting trends
- Misleading graphs
What you will be able to do
- 3.2 Interpret simple charts and tables (bar, pie, line).
Activity
Interpret four charts and find the misleading one.
Study materials
Further resources
- Contemporary Mathematics, 8.2: Visualizing Data · PDF · OpenStax Contemporary Mathematics (2023), 8.2: bar charts, pie charts and other charts and reading trends, pp. 827–847 · for registered students
- Contemporary Mathematics, 8.2: Misleading Graphs · PDF · OpenStax Contemporary Mathematics (2023), 8.2 section on graphs that mislead and how to spot them, pp. 848–852 · for registered students
- Introductory Statistics 2e, 2.1: Line Graphs and Bar Graphs · PDF · OpenStax Introductory Statistics 2e (2023), 2.1: line graphs and bar graphs, pp. 66–74 · for registered students
- The Study Skills Handbook, Confidence with numbers: Tables, charts and graphs · PDF · Cottrell, The Study Skills Handbook 5e, bonus chapter, reading tables, graphs and pie charts, pp. 237–240 · for registered students
- Beyond bar and line graphs: time for a new data presentation paradigm · Open-access article · Weissgerber et al. (2015), PLOS Biology. How bar and line graphs can mislead and what to use instead. · for registered students
- Ten simple rules for better figures · Open-access article · Rougier et al. (2014), PLOS Computational Biology. Practical rules for clear, honest charts. · for registered students
Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.
