| While presentation and charting software programs have become increasingly sophisticated, improved software has not necessarily lead to improved data graphics. This study starts from the premise that focusing on the organization of information can lead to data graphics that are potentially more useful. The study thus unites two sets of ideas: (a) means of organizing information, and (b) means of analyzing and presenting data in graphic form.; Six different ways of organizing information are developed in a framework that incorporates verbal, visual, and mathematical considerations. This framework, or heuristic, is then used to reveal underlying organizational structures present in data graphics.; Though theoretical in nature, the study focuses on the practical application of the concepts presented, such as how to use the organizational heuristic to design and evaluate data graphics. For example, the study explains two expert approaches to designing data graphics and then reformulates the experts' guidelines in line with the organizational heuristic. These reformulated guidelines are then used to compose knowledge-creating data graphics from unstructured data.; The study relies on document analysis as its research method. Documents dealing with organization issues include works from the field of information design and discourse theory by such authors as Richard Saul Wurman and James L. Kinneavy. Documents related to data graphics include works from the fields of statistics, operations research, and cartography by A. S. C. Ehrenberg, David Targett, and Jacques Bertin.; In exploring jointly two sets of ideas related to organization and data graphics, the study shows how data presentation, and the way data are organized, fosters data analysis and leads to the discovery of new information. For the field of composition and rhetoric, the study demonstrates in a concrete way the importance of rhetorical arrangement, and how rhetorical arrangement leads to rhetorical invention. The result is a pedagogical resource for composition and other writing instructors who want to integrate data graphics into their courses, or who seek a system of organizing that can be applied to text as well as to data graphics. |
