This quiz is intended to test students understanding of the material covered in the book The Wall Street Journal. Guide to Information Graphics by Dona M. Wong. Prior to taking this quiz students should be assigned selected readings from the text (pages 181).

The free response style of this quiz not only tests students ability to recall information, but their ability to critically think and apply the information gained from the readings.

The following quiz is an instructors version, which includes answers to the questions and page references.

Quiz The Wall Street Journal. Guide to Information Graphics

Quiz The Wall Street Journal. Guide to Information Graphics

Name Score

1. What are the three essential elements of good information graphics? 3 points

Rich content, inviting visualization, sophisticated execution --- pg. 14

2. What are the four steps of best charting practices? 4 points

Research, Edit, Plot, Review --- pg. 20

3. Describe three design principles that can help improve the presentation of information on a bar chart. 3 points

Always start bar charts at the zero baseline.

Bar charts should show four or fewer categories.

Display negative numbers on the left size of the zero line and positive values on the right.

Keep labels flush left.

Start with the lightest shade and move to the darkest. --- pg. 6273

4. When drawing proportional pie charts, the size of the circles should always be calculated based on what element? 1 points

Accurate proportional pie charts should be calculated based on surface area. A common error

is to calculate based on the radius of the circles. --- pg. 8182

5. Which type of chart would you use to represent the following type of information? 3 points

Proportions of a whole : pie chart --- pg. 76

Discrete quantities : bar chart --- pg. 62

Trends : line chart --- pg. 50

Answers

Quiz The Wall Street Journal. Guide to Information Graphics

6. Describe why each of the following charts is not working. 3 points

12 60

50

40

30

20

9

6

3

01 2 3 4 5 04 05 06

Segment ASegment B

Segment C

Other

0760%

5%

10%

25%

April

7. The Wall Street Journal. Guide to Information Graphics page 15.

Increments of three are awkward. Instead use increments that are more naturally used when

counting (increments of 2, 5, 10, etc.). --- pg. 52

Bar charts that do not start at a zero baseline are misleading because they truncate the total

value of each bar. --- pg. 64

Pie segments should not be charted clockwise from smallest to largest. Rather the larger, more

important, segments should be at the top and the smaller segments at the bottom. --- pg. 75