How to Make Charts
Charts are tools that show data with visual representations. The data presented on charts can include numbers or qualitative structures. People often make charts by hand or on a computer to help others understand data and their relationship to other figures on the chart. Some well-known charts include Gantt charts to show the projected time line of a project, Nolan's political chart, the PERT chart to aid with project management and the Smith chart that radio electricians use.
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Instructions
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Choose a design for your chart. Design styles include line graphs, pie charts, bar graphs, area graphs and an x-y plot.
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Organize your data. Doing this will help you figure out how many data points you will need and how many groups of data you are detailing. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) states that this is when you need to figure out which data goes on the x-axis or which data you need to include in a pie chart's legend. In addition, organizing your data will help you establish the minimum and maximum values for your chart.
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Label your chart. Give your chart a name and label its axes, if appropriate. Labels explain the dependent and independent variables in your chart and help those reading it know which groups are represented in the data.
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Tips & Warnings
Line and area graphs, according to the NCES, track changes over time. Their backgrounds and grid lines are different colors. Line and area graphs sometimes have a legend.
Pie charts are good for showing data about a group surveyed. You need to select different colors for the different slices within the pie chart, and provide a legend that explains what the different colors represent.
Bar graphs compare data between two or more different groups or measure large changes over time. Their backgrounds and grid lines are different colors, and you can design the bars in different ways. The bars can look three-dimensional and you can stack data on top of each other or side by side.
An x-y plot shows the relationship between two or more different types of data. The NCES states the x-axis measures a different variable or event than the y-axis. If the x and y variables increase in the same manner, it is said that they have a positive relationship.
Make your graph easy to read and explain. Using a computer program can help you do this.
References
- Photo Credit 3d charts image by Maxim_Kazmin from Fotolia.com
