Overview
Graphics are a common way to convey statistical information in an easily digestible way. That said, not all graphics clearly display statistical information.
A learning objective of this course is to be able to be critical of and differentiate between a variety of statistical tools. Consequently, the intention of this assignment is to build literacy around statistics and how they are represented (e.g., in graphics or tables). Begin by viewing the video “How to Spot a Misleading Graphic”Links to an external site..
Next, find a graphic in news media that displays some sort of statistical information in graphical form (i.e., not a table or frequency distribution) that was published in the last month. Be sure to reference the data of the publication in your paper. Here is an example sentence (which you can use) “In the article ‘How is the COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign Going in Your State?’, published on May 7th, 2021…” Once you choose a graphic, analyze the graphic then discuss why the graphic is unclear, confusing, or misleading. In your discussion, be sure to discuss your reasons for why the graphic is unclear, confusing, or misleading terms of labels, numbers, scale and context which were discussed in the video “How to Spot a Misleading Graphic.”
As an example of the types of questions to raise in your analysis, I point out a couple of issues I have with the graphic below (which states lead in vaccinations). I’ve put these issues in bullet-point form. Note that in your paper, you cannot use bullet points and should instead convey and elaborate upon your reasons for why the graphic is unclear, confusing, or misleading in essay form. If you want to see the full article, read " external site..
- Why are the sizes of the circles representing states different? What does that convey to the viewer/reader? There is some text describing the size of the circle, but hard to read and easy to miss.
- What is the y-axis? What is higher on the graphic or lower on the graphic? The scale of the graphic is unknown.
- The different colors of blue overlap in space on the graphic; I don’t know what the blue gradient means. The labels for the colors are missing.
- Proofread your assignment for spelling, grammar, APA, and content. Consider reading it aloud to yourself to more easily identify errors.
- Submit your assignment according to the Formatting Guidelines. Assignments should be submitted as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or Rich Text file (.rtf).