Find an article in the popular media (newspaper, magazine, Web site) that includes a graph in addition to the text.

a. Briefly summarize the main point of the article and graph.

b. What are the independent and dependent variables depicted in the graph? What kinds of variables are they? If nominal, what are the levels?

c. What descriptive statistics are included in the article or on the graph?

d. In one or two sentences, what story is the graph (rather than the article) trying to tell?

e. How well do the text and graph match up? Are they telling the same story? Are they using the same terms? Explain.

f. Write a paragraph to the graph’s creator with advice for improving the graph. Be specific, citing the guidelines from this chapter. 

g. Redo the graph, either by hand or by computer, in line with your suggestions.