Analysing the pie chart.
ANSWER:
Explain what features of the graph make it misleading.
This graph is highly misleading, seeing as numerical calculations don't add up to 100%, as the standard pie chart does. The numerical values of each section add up to 178% which makes this pie chart extremely hard to interpret upon first glance. (Keep this information, it'll be important!)
Describe what people seeing the graph might misinterpret because of the misleading features.
Seeing as most people look at percentages out of 100%, people may think that one section describes 68% of 100% of people who took a survey felt a certain way, when in reality, the calculations are just off. Not only are the titles of the pie chart sections extremely generic, they don't give much context to the situation, even with the title in mind.
Designing a new pie chart.
Design a new version of the graph changing the misleading features so that the graph is no longer misleading. Use the same data provided in the original graph.
EXPLANATION:
1. We will start with the title and our section names. We have three sections based on the title 'Biggest COV-19 Worries,' which we can keep. We can rename our titles in this manner:
Getting It ---> Contracting COV-19
Family Getting It ---> Relatives Contracting COV-19
The Economy ---> COV-19's Effect on US Economy
2. Now we can look at percentages. I'll give an explanation and then I'll give numerical values for your recreation of the pie chart:
Since our pie chart has a whole value of 178%, we need to convert our numerical values to 100%. (ex. 89% of 178% = 50% of 100%) We can use simple decimal/percentage conversion for this.
68% of 178% = 38.2% of 100%
62% of 178% = 34.8% of 100%
48% of 178% = 26.9% of 100%
If we round these all accordingly, we get 38%, 35%, and 27%, which all add up to 100%.
Now we can create the bar graph with the right proportions for a bar graph of our values.
ANSWER/GUIDE:
38% corresponds to 'COV-19's Effect on US Economy,' 35% to 'Relatives Contracting COV-19,' and 27% to 'Contracting COV-19.'
(There are a few websites that allow you to make pie charts with numeric values, titles, and section names. Hope you're able to use one.
With our new graph, we corrected the misleading percentages in the pie chart, the generic and bland language of the descriptions, and made the graph much easier to read and interpret.
Why things like this shouldn't happen.
Write a short paragraph -- at least 3 sentences -- explaining why people need to examine graphs closely and what features to look for so they can identify misleading graphs.
ANSWER:
Things like this cannot happen as it can lead to make wrongful assumptions or claims. Not only will this confuse someone, it simply miseducates everyone who tries to interpret the graph as written. When expressing something highly important such as the COV-19 pandemic, you want to make sure you are giving credible and reliable information. When you're making graphs such as this, you want to look for three main things:
- What data has been collected
- How this data is being interpreted
- Whether or not the data is precise and informative
Hope this helped and good luck, fellow scholar!
