Discussion: Displaying Data

Visual displays of data provide you and anyone else with a graphical display of what is often a complex array of quantitative data. A key strength of visualization is the ability to quickly enlighten you with key data. Rather than solely relying on your audience to interpret numerical values and statistics explained in a narrative, a visual display can easily illustrate descriptions, relationships, and trends. Although the focus is on simplicity, the researcher has an obligation to present these graphical displays in a clear and meaningful way.

For this Discussion, you will explore ways to appropriately display data.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review the Learning Resources for this week related to frequency distributions and graphic displays of data.
• Using the SPSS software, open the General Social Survey dataset found in this week's Learning Resources.
• Next, create a figure or table from a few selected variables within the dataset.
• Finally, think about what is good about how the data are displayed in the figure or table you created and what is not so good.

By Day 3

Post your display of the table or figure you created and provide an explanation of why this would be the best way to display the data provided.

Be sure to support your Main Post and Response Post with reference to the week's Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA Style.

By Day 5

Respond to at least one of your colleagues' post and determine whether you are able to understand the "whole picture" of the data or understand the data in its entirety. What might you add to their display and why? What might you change to their display and why?

Submission and Grading Information

Datasets

Document: Data Set 2014 General Social Survey (dataset file)

Use this dataset to complete this week's Discussion.

Note: You will need the SPSS software to open this dataset.