Read the article "How to Display Data Badly," by Howard Wainer. It was published in the American Statistician
Read the article "How to Display Data Badly," by Howard Wainer. It was published in the American Statistician in 1984, volume 38, pages 137-147. You can find it here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2683253. It is a quick, informative, and (dare I say?) enjoyable read.
Next, scour the Internet (or if you are feeling particularly plucky, look through your company’s annual report!) to find an example of a poorly made or misleading graph and post it to the conference, pointing out where you think the graph went awry. All the better if you can find a health related graph.
Reproduce the data using a better (more illuminating, more honest, etc) graph format. You may have to do some guesswork on what the underlying data actually are.
Don't forget to complete all three required steps:
Post an example of a poorly made graph. Don't forget to cite the source of your graph, and please do not post a duplicate of a graph already posted by one of your classmates.
Provide a brief discussion of what makes the graph a poor one. A couple of sentences should suffice.
Redo the graph (probably using Excel), making sure to correct the faults you identified in the original.
Deliverable: Word Document
