Summary Convert the elements of a numerical vector or data frame column to character strings in which the numbers are formatted using powers-of-ten notation in scientific or engineering form and delimited for rendering as inline equations...

Summary I redesign a grouped-bar chart to attempt to better align the logic of the display with the logic of the argument. The redesigned chart provides better visual access to year-by-year comparisons by different combinations of categor...

Summary I compare the effectiveness of two charts—a radar (or spider) chart and a faceted dot chart—in communicating information about Burtin’s 1951 antibiotics/bacteria data. The faceted dot chart is more effective, suggesting in general...

Summary The author of a recent article plots two time series in a dual axis chart as visual evidence of a correlation between the two series. I re-plot the data using three recommended alternatives: a side-by-side chart, an indexed chart,...

Summary I critique and correct a well-known visual lie from a 2015 Congressional hearing in which the authors abuse chart-making conventions to serve their rhetorical goals. I explore what authentic stories these data tell and what authen...

Summary For data structures having two categorical variables and one quantitative variable, this post illustrates how category independence or dependence influences chart design. Graphs with independent categories (multiway data) are easi...

Summary Given Likert-style survey data in one of three common forms, I shape the data to suit the input requirements of the likert R package and use the output to create 100% stacked-bar charts. In each case, I illustrate two routine revi...

Summary I reconstruct three alternative chart designs for Likert-style survey data from a 2018 post by Lisa Charlotte Muth and Gregor Aisch and share the source data and my R code. Comparing the charts in light of their arguments, I agree...

Summary I redesign a stacked-bar chart to attempt to better align the logic of the display with the logic of the argument. The visual structure of the redesigned chart suggests a concomitant reorganization of the prose, illustrating the i...

Summary The rhetorical shortcomings of stacked-bar charts are overcome using alternative designs better suited for making visual comparisons. Both examples start as stacked-bar charts but end as different types, based on the variables to ...