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Reviews Edited by Beth Notzon and Edith Paal Reviews edited by Beth Notzon and Edith Paal People have been trying to display infor- dull statistician or economist: he dabbled mation graphically ever since our ancestors in fields as varied as engineering, journal- depicted hunts on the cave walls. From ism, and blackmail, the reader discovers. those early efforts through the graphs and There is essentially no limit to the types tables in modern scientific publications, of data display that can be influenced by the attempts have met with various degrees good design, as Wainer makes clear by of success, as Howard Wainer describes in the variety of examples he presents. The Graphic Discovery: A Trout in the Milk and college acceptance letter Wainer’s son Other Visual Adventures. received is cited as a successful display. The This book is no dry, academic tome word “YES,” which is really the only infor- about data. The conversational tone, well- mation the reader cares about in such a chosen illustrations, and enriching asides letter, is printed in large type in the middle combine to create a delightful presentation of the page, with two short, smaller-type of the highlights and lowlights of graphic lines of congratulatory text at the bottom. display. And good data displays will con- As Wainer points out, that tells readers tinue to be important in our current, data- what they want to know without making inundated society. them hunt for it. (He leaves unaddressed Like any good story, this one has its hero. what that school’s rejection letters looked Although writers have used pictures to like that year. Would a giant “NO” be as present information for centuries—astro- well received?) GRAPHIC DISCOVERY: A TROUT IN THE nomical movements were depicted in cir- The acceptance letter, with its useful MILK AND OTHER VISUAL ADVENTURES. cular diagrams in the 9th century, and one presentation, contrasts sharply with the HOWARD WAINER. PRINCETON: early example of printed graph paper dates all-too-common “Alabama first” pattern. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS; 2005. to about 1680—it wasn’t until the late The tendency to alphabetize data displays 192 PAGES. HARDCOVER. $29.95. ISBN: 18th century that a Scot named William is a disservice because it may hide the 0-691-10301-1. Playfair greatly expanded the reach of aspect of the data that is truly interesting, graphical display, Wainer writes. Playfair Wainer writes. Alabama is the first state, invented or perfected three workhorses of alphabetically speaking, but instances in data display: the pie chart, the bar chart, which it should head a data display are and the statistical line graph. And it was rare. Wainer presents a graph depicting Playfair’s Commercial and Political Atlas of Supreme Court justices’ votes on six cases England and Wales, first published in 1786, by way of illustration. When both the jus- that showed that graphs were applicable tices’ names and the nature of the cases are to fields outside the realm of pure sci- alphabetized on their own axes, a largely ence. The Atlas, which did not include a indecipherable blob emerges, although one single map, graphically described various can discern that Sandra Day O’Connor aspects of England’s economy. Charts of always voted in the majority and Clarence taxes, trade, and debt demonstrated the Thomas rarely did. Reordering the two applicability of graphic display to a wide axes in a manner that Wainer describes array of economic data, and they showed as “obvious, but data-related” is far more that such display could be visually appeal- informative. This time, John Paul Stevens ing. The Atlas, in fact, was the first major is on the far left and Antonin Scalia on publication to contain this kind of statisti- the far right of the horizontal axis, and the cal display, Wainer writes. Playfair was by cases are reordered to group similar votes no means the first to graph data—the aptly together. The Supreme Court’s expected named Robert Plot, for example, charted voting blocs become much clearer. barometric pressures at Oxford a century The Court display is one of many that before Playfair’s Atlas first appeared—but show how wide-ranging data displays can be. it was Playfair, using shading and other The prices of convertible vehicles, the num- design elements, who showed that “the ber of private elementary schools, and men’s presentation of evidence could be beauti- and women’s performances in the Boston ful”, Wainer writes. And Playfair was no Marathon are additional examples of dif- Science Editor • November – December 2005 • Vol 28 • No 6 • 191 Reviews continued ferent ways to present data and to highlight The conversational tone of the writing the message one is trying to impart. Wainer makes it accessible to those without an also discusses what we might see in future extensive background in statistics. Readers graphic displays, paying special attention to whose graphics experiences are limited tools derived from modern computing. to pondering the graphics in USA Today Wainer devotes ample space to the will find something of value in this work. potential pitfalls of data displays. Graphs can Wainer’s text is enlivened by allusions to be manipulated in an attempt to mislead, he fields far beyond statistics, such as history writes. The size of the vertical scale on bar and current events. Indeed, the book’s sub- and line graphs is a tempting target. Too title is derived from Henry David Thoreau’s narrow a scale exaggerates minor changes 1850 journal entry regarding suspicions and risks presenting a surfeit of data; too that milk was being watered down during a large a scale makes all but the largest varia- dairymen’s strike: “Sometimes, circumstan- tions disappear. If one has too choose, too tial evidence can be quite convincing, like small a scale that “fills the plot with data” when you find a trout in the milk.” The fre- is preferable, Wainer writes. Later review- quent allusions to history and social science ers could always replot the data by using a make this book both entertaining and useful larger scale without having to resort to the for writers and editors who strive to improve original data. That is not the case when the data displays in their work. scale is too large to be meaningful. Edith Paal As befits a work about graphic displays, this book is beautifully designed. The two- EDITH PAAL works in human-subjects research column pages are easy to read, and much thought clearly went into the selection oversight at the University of Arkansas for and presentation of the graphic examples. Medical Sciences. Helpful and entertaining asides to the main text are presented as footnotes, whereas text references are in endnotes. Attention, Book Buyers: You Can Help Support CSE Many societies and associations, including CSE, have chosen to take advantage of a rewards program offered by Amazon.com. CSE earns a small percentage of the purchase price of most items if the buyer accesses Amazon via the icon on the CSE Web site (in the lower left corner of the home page). So if youʼre planning to buy a book or other merchandise from Amazon during the holiday season—or any other time—help to support CSE by traveling there via the CSE Web site: www.CouncilScienceEditors.org. 192 • Science Editor • November – December 2005 • Vol 28 • No 6.
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