visualising-data-course

3: Prose matters

Short clear English for the written elements of a chart can really help understanding.

• Make your point, don’t state a fact.
• Choose the words carefully in the title, subtitle and footnotes of a chart.
  • The title states the headline point.
  • The subtitle states secondary point.
  • The footnotes provide data source links.
  • A commentary often follows.
• Label axes clearly. State the units of measure
• Label any legend clearly
• Use lines and annotation to highlight key points and events

Consider following a typical newspaper article organisation:

Headline > bye-line > chart > summary > detail

Always label units. For example, car fuel efficiency: miles per US gallon or kilometres per litre?

Don’t use excessive precision. 2 or 3 significant figures is normally enough. For example:

• £381K is probably better than £381,123.78 and much better than £381123.789
• 20-June-1995 is probably better than 28-June-1995 12:34.567
• 12% is probably better than 12.345%

Example

Inspect the chart below and identify all the prose elements. is prose used effectively in this chart?

Source: The Economist

Example

This chart has a various textual adornments. How many do you see?

Source: Our Carrie Bradshaw index: Where Americans can afford to live solo (economist.com)