Describing Graphs

• when asked to summarize a frequency table, mention:

  1. the modal category
  2. the proportion/percentage for the modal category
• when asked to summarize a bar plot, mention

  1. the modal category
  2. the proportion/percentage for the modal category
  3. mention if there are groups of categories with high/low proportions (usually easier to see visually)
  4. if there is an ordering to the categories, mention if there is any trend in proportions
• when presented with a box plot, be sure to mention

  1. report the median as accurately as you can
  2. if there are outliers, mention how many there are, and on which side of the median they are
  3. if you are presented with more than one box plot in a figure, try to compare their medians and inter-quartile ranges
• to summarize a histogram, mention

  1. the overall pattern
  2. do the data cluster together, or is there a gap such that one or more observations deviate from the rest
  3. are there any suspected outliers?
  4. number of mounds
  5. unimodal: one mound
  6. bimodal: two mounds
  7. multimodal: more than two mounds
  8. is the distribution symmetric or skewed?