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Eric Rasmusen, Eric Rasmusen, erasmuse@indiana.eduerasmuse@indiana.edu

March 10, 2014March 10, 2014

Graphs and Graphs and TablesTables

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44Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States, Section IV

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http://rru.worldbank.org/Documents/PapersLinks/RI%20Final%20Guatemalai.pdf

How can this table be improved?

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Principles of Tables Principles of Tables 1. Keep the data-to-ink ratio high.

2. Leave out dividing lines and boxes unless you have a good reason for them.

3. Leave off repetitive, useless numbers.

4. Don't use just capital letters.

5. Circle or otherwise mark important numbers, in particular, ones you mention in the text or talk.

6. Make the table self-contained. Don't require the reader to refer to the text or a previous table. Include the source and the units of measurement.

7. Number and title every table.

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Mixed Graphics and TablesMixed Graphics and Tables

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Govt. % of GDP

1970 and 1979

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Good GraphicsGood Graphics

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Books by Edward TufteBooks by Edward Tufte

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (1983) (pictures of numbers)

Envisioning Information (1990) (pictures of nouns)

Visual Explanations (1997) (pictures of verbs). Beautiful EvidenceA lot of this is from Tufte.

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Anscombe’s Quartet: The summary statistics are all the same, but graphing them shows how they are different.

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dfgdgfdfgdgf

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(1) Klass uses horizontal bars. Why?

(2) Why is the order of the countries not alphabetical?

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Note the “marginal distribution” on the axes.

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Female cancer rates

Male cancer rates

What do these maps tell us?

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Some Good Graphics

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http://www.bcg.com/publications/files/http://www.bcg.com/publications/files/Balancing_Act_Implementing_an_Integrated_Strategy_for_Value_Creation_Nov05.pdfBalancing_Act_Implementing_an_Integrated_Strategy_for_Value_Creation_Nov05.pdf

2020http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/minard

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http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000SI&topic_id=1&topic=Ask%20E%2eT%2e

New York Times,New York Times, March 20, 2003, p. D1 March 20, 2003, p. D1

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Bad Graphics Bad Graphics

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The Deceptive Use of Size

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A Moire pattern (“more- ay”)

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Pie Charts– bad 3DPie Charts– bad 3D

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http://rru.worldbank.org/Documents/PapersLinks/RI%20Final%20Guatemalai.pdfhttp://rru.worldbank.org/Documents/PapersLinks/RI%20Final%20Guatemalai.pdf

How can this map be improved?

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Principles of Graphs Principles of Graphs 1. Keep the data-to-ink ratio high. 2. Erase data-ink for useless data. 3. Erase non-data ink. 4. Don't use Moire patterns. 5. Use boxes and grids only if they help. 6. Don't use cute pictures that obscure what you are saying. 7. Consider labelling individual data points of special interest. 8. Write text horizontally, not vertically. 9. Make the figure self-contained. Don't require the reader to refer to the text or a previous table. Include the source and the units of measurement. 10. Number and title every figure.

FY07 Margin per Credit Hour137.31

103.63

69.99 69.84 68.8659.72 58.00

49.02

16.53 15.10

-90.25

-122.55

-327.04$(330)

$(280)

$(230)

$(180)

$(130)

$(80)

$(30)

$20

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Med Sciences HPER COAS Business Optometry SPEA Other Academic

Education SLIS Journalism Law Music Informatics

A Chart with Vertical Bars, a Legend, and a Gray Background

Scaling Effects: Did Scaling Effects: Did Unemployment Hardly Unemployment Hardly

Change?Change?

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The Two-Axis Solution to The Two-Axis Solution to Scaling EffectsScaling Effects

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Excel Charts Excel Charts

1. Don’t use a legend (side box with variables being graphed) without good reason. You can often put the variable and units of measurement in the title.

2. Don’t use sideways or vertical writing on the axes

3. Except for dates, use a comma to separate thousands (this is an Excel option under Number).

4. Don’t use a chart area border unless you have good reason.

http://www.rasmusen.org/g492/fed-debt-chart.xls/

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http://www.bcg.com/publications/files/http://www.bcg.com/publications/files/Balancing_Act_Implementing_an_Integrated_Strategy_for_Value_Creation_Nov05.pdfBalancing_Act_Implementing_an_Integrated_Strategy_for_Value_Creation_Nov05.pdf

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http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/nypdemergency.pdfhttp://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/nypdemergency.pdf

4141http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/nypdemergency.pdf

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