A-manual-for-writers-of-research-papers-theses-and-dissertations

Figures8.1 Choose Verbal or Visual Representations8.2 Choose the Most Effective Graphic8.3 Design Tables and Figures8.3.1 Frame Each Graphic to Help Your Readers Understand It8.3.2 Keep the Image as Simple as Its Content Allows8.3.3 Follow Guidelines for Tables, Bar Charts, and Line Graphs8.4 Communicate Data EthicallyIf your data are in the form of numbers, most readers grasp them more easily if you presentthem graphically. But you face many choices of graphic forms, and some forms will suit yourdata and message better than others. In this chapter, we show you how to choose the rightgraphic form and design it so that readers can see both what your data are and how theysupport your argument. (See pp. 414–15 in the bibliography for guides to creating and usinggraphics; see chapter 26 for details on formatting graphics.) 18.1 Choose Verbal or Visual RepresentationsOrdinarily, present quantitative data verbally when they include only a few numbers. (Seechapter 23 for presenting numbers in text.) Present them graphically when most of yourevidence is quantitative or you must communicate a large set of data. But when the data arefew and simple, readers can grasp them as easily in a sentence as in a table like table 8.1:In 1996, on average, men earned $32,144 a year, women $23,710, a difference of $8,434.But if you present more than four or five numbers in a passage, readers will struggle to keepthem straight, particularly if they must compare them, like this:Between 1970 and 2000, the structure of families changed in two ways. In 1970, 85 percent of families had twoparents, but in 1980 that number declined to 77 percent, then to 73 percent in 1990, and to 68 percent in 2000.The number of one-parent families rose, particularly families headed by a mother. In 1970, 11 percent of