Common Errors in Statistics (and How to Avoid Them), 4th Edition

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For many more examples of bad and/or misleading graphics, see http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/. Wilkinson [1999] presents a formal grammar for describing graphics, but more importantly (for our purposes), the author lists graphical element hierarchies from best to worst. Cleveland [1994] focuses on the elements of common illustrations and he explores the effectiveness of each element in communicating numeric information. A classic text is Tukey [1977], in which the author lists both graphical and text-based graphical summaries of data. Tufte [1983] and Tufte [1990] organized much of the previous work and combined that work with modern developments; see also Burn [1993] and Wainer [1997, 2004]. For specific illustrations, subject-specific texts can be consulted for particular displays in context; for example, Hardin and Hilbe [2003, pages 143–167] illustrate the use of graphics for assessing model accuracy.

For a lighthearted, but enlightening, presentation of charts and graphs, see http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com. In particular, http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/BenGreenman has an unofficial collection of charts in the so-called Museum of Silly Charts. Though tongue-in-cheek, the charts found at these sites humorously illustrate some of the difficulties of inferring information from graphics. As mentioned in the chapter’s opening, see Yau [2011] for another take on effective use of graphics.

Notes

¹  These labels show the remarkable lack of imagination that we encounter ...