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Good Charts |
 | | Most charts are a variation on one of four basic types: pie charts, bar charts, time series charts and scatterplots. Choosing the right type of chart depends on the characteristics of the data and the relationships you want displayed. |
 | | Bar charts typically display the relationship between one or more categorical variables with one or more quantitative variables represented by the length of the bars. The categorical variables are usually defined by the categories displayed on the X-axis and, if there is more than one data series, by the legend. |
 | | One common bar charting mistake is including the legend on the right-hand side of the plot area (shown in figure 12), placing the legend inside the plot area, as in figure 9, or horizontally under the table title (as in figure 11) maximizes the size of the area given over to displaying the data. |
| lilt.ilstu.edu /gmklass/pos138/datadisplay/sections/goodcharts.htm (3062 words) |