10: Summary

To be able to convey information correctly, graphs must be well constructed. Here is a quick summary of the steps you need to follow when making a good graph:

  • Choose your x and y variables.
  • Label your x and y axes using both a description and the units in parentheses (brackets).
  • Choose a title, which describes what the graph shows.
  • Determine the best minimums and maximums for x and y.
  • Determine the best distance for tick marks or intervals on each axis.
  • Include a legend if there’s more than one data series.

and……..

  • Don’t forget to graph the data!

Learning Outcomes

You should now be able to:

  • Create a graph by hand.
  • Present data in a graph.

If you want a printer-friendly version of this module, you can find it here in a PDF document. This printer-friendly version should be used only to review, as it does not contain any of the interactive material, and only a skeletal version of problems solved in the module.