Assignment #5
Due Monday April 2 by noon--4% of final grade
Graphics

This assignment will ask you to pull together two sets of information from your primary and/or secondary research. It should be information that you will probably include in your final report. You will decide on appropriate graphics forms for this information and present them to me, along with a paragraph of accompanying text for each that interprets (as opposed to describes) the graphic and the significance of the information it contains.

The details:

• You must use two different kinds of graphics (i.e. not two pie charts or two photographs)
• Each graphic must be labeled (Figure 1 etc.), have a title, have any information correctly labeled, and contain appropriate legends or keys. See the text, ch. 12, for details.
• Each graphic must be of the size you intend to use in your report, and of decent quality. The use of color is totally optional. However, if you use color or graphic fills, make sure they will show clearly in a black-and-white photocopy.
• The accompanying paragraph for each must be interpretative; it should not simply describe what the graphic already shows us. (I.E. I don=t want paragraphs saying, A A survey was given to 100 residents of Richardson about the desirability of a rent increase. As you can see from Figure 2, 28% said yes, 41 % said no, and 31% were undecided.@ That information ought to be obvious in the pie chart. What I want you to tell me is what the implications are of that information: AAs you can see from Figure 2, opinion in Richardson about a rent increase is decidedly split. Nearly one/third are still undecided, so a publicity campaign explaining the benefits Richardson would receive from increased rent revenues should be targeted at this group to gain more support for the proposal.@)

Some of the kinds of graphics people have used in the past include

• pie charts
• bar charts
• photographs
• line charts
• tables
• maps
• organizational charts
• Gantt charts
• blueprints or site plans

This is a good time to experiment with what is the best way to present a specific set of date or information, and it will help you to conquer the problems with editing and printing graphics before the final report is due.

Graphics without an interpretative paragraph will receive a grade of F.