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Stage 12: Taking care of visual details (illustrations, tables, figures, graphics, etc.)

Why is this stage important?

A picture is worth a thousand words but only if that picture is well chosen or carefully created, refers the reader to information they might receive less clearly in any other manner, and is integrated into the overall presentation. In other words, simply having a visual display is not sufficient to convey your message – thoughtful selection and design of visual displays is crucial to effective communication.

Step 1: Determine what information you want to emphasize.

  1. Presenting data in your dissertation
  2. Guidelines for Statistical Graphs

Step 2: Decide whether this information is best expressed in text, a table, a figure, graph or illustration.

  1. Informative Presentation of Tables, Graphs and Statistics
  2. Gelman, A., Pasarica, C., & Dodhia, R. 2002 Let's practice what we preach: turning tables into graphs. The American Statistician, 56, 121(10).
  3. Tufte, E. R. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information (2nd ed.). Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.

Step 3: Select a visual format that best conveys the information.

  1. Graphical displays
  2. Schriger, D. L., & Cooper, R. J. (2001). Achieving graphical excellence: Suggestions and methods for creating high-quality visual displays for experimental data. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 37, 75-87.

Step 4: Label your illustration, table or graph, taking care that the labeling is both clear and consistent.

  1. Design Criteria
  2. Cleveland, W. S. (1994). The elements of graphing data (Rev. ed.).Murray Hill, NJ: AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Step 5: Edit your visual display.

  1. Is the format successful at conveying that information you deem most important?
  2. Is there anything extraneous?
      3. The Best and Worst of Statistical Graphics

Step 6: Check the text associated with your visual display

  1. Ensure that the visual information has been referenced and that the emphasis created by the visual display is consistent with the emphasis in the text
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