TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:More effective data graphics: three resources From:Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> Date:Thu, 17 Aug 1995 16:28:32 LCL
To follow up on my previous posting, there are actually two books by
Edward Tufte, _The Visual Display of Quantitative Information_ and
_Envisioning Information_. The former is more generally useful for
data graphics, but both are fine reading. If you want a more academic
(yet quite readable) treatment of this subject, you can also try the
following paper, which should be available through inter-library loan:
Michael MacDonald-Ross. 1977. How numbers are shown: a review of
research on the presentation of quantitative data in texts. AV
Communication Review 25(4):359-409.
Tufte is still pounding the lecture circuit last I looked, and has
probably produced some more recent articles that would be worth
reading (I haven't seen any books mentioned). Dr. MacDonald-Ross, a
charming British professor at the Open University of Milton Keynes, is
still alive and well, and willing to correspond with far less charming
blokes like me (as I discovered when I wrote to ask him a question or
two on his paper).
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one of
our reports, it don't represent FERIC's opinion.