Discussion
Find a Graph in the Wild
Students find a real graph from a news article, ad, or social post and apply the four-question checklist. Is there a difference between accurate and honest?
Find a graph in the wild — in a news article, an advertisement, a company's annual report, or a social media post.
- —Share it with the class (or write a description of it).
- —Apply the four-question checklist: Does the axis start at zero? If not, is there a good reason? What's the time range — does the start/end date seem chosen for a reason? Is it a 3D chart? What context or comparison is missing?
- —Is there anything about this graph you'd call misleading? Or does it seem fair?
- —If you were redesigning it to be as honest as possible, what would you change?
A harder question for class discussion:
- —Is there a difference between a graph that's accurate and one that's honest?
- —Where's the line between making data look compelling and making it look misleading?
- —If you were a journalist, would you ever use a truncated axis? Under what circumstances?