Strategies for Managerial Writing

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Chapter 10 Using Graphic Images Effectively
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Strategies for Graphic Illustration

• Key Concept 10.1
• Effective graphic illustration is a result of
  careful planning focused on managing graphic
  resources rather than mastering them.

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Strategies for Graphic Illustration

• Section Outline
• Establishing Your Purpose for Using an
  Illustration
• Formulating a Strategy

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Illustration Purposes

• To Represent Data
• To Reveal Relationships
• To Compare and Contrast
• To Show Trends

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More Purposes

• To Clarify Complex Patterns
• To Enhance Visualization of a Problem
• To Reconstruct a Sequence of Events
• To Create a Context for Information

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Charts With Purposes

• Scatter plot

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Line Chart
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Pareto Chart
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Strategy for Graphics

• Develop a criteria for including and excluding
  information
• Develop a criteria for placement
• Consider in-text versus appendix

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Processes for Preparing Meaningful Illustrations

• Key Concept 10.2
• Many software tools will help you prepare
  meaningful and effective illustrations. With each
  new generation of software, these tools become
  easier for the nonprofessional to master.

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Processes for Preparing Meaningful Illustrations

• Section Outline
• Select Appropriate Tools
• Prepare the Information
• When Are Samples of Each Type of Illustration
  Needed?

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Types of Charts

• Area Chart or Pie Chart
• A type of illustration that uses a geometric
  figure, usually a circle or a square, to
  represent the total distribution of a given
  variable, such as the total tax revenues or total
  sales, and then percentages of the total are
  represented as larger or smaller slices of the
  pie or sections of the total area.
• Bar Graph or Histogram
• Type of illustration that depicts each variable
  as a column or row that is filled from the base
  to the value being represented.

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Charts Continued

• Chart
• The broadest name for an illustration, it refers
  to graphs, tables, and free-hand illustrations.
• Table
• A type of chart that places data in rows and
  columns and allows sums and other analytic
  products (mean, standard deviation, etc.) to be
  placed in the summary rows or columns.
• Flow Chart
• A type of illustration that using various
  geometric shapes to symbolize a process or step
  and then drawing arrows or lines to show the
  order of the process.

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Charts Continued

• Graph
• A type of chart that uses a grid created by an x-
  and y-axis to illustrate regular or standard
  quantities and thus allowing comparisons.
• Line Chart or Frequency Polygon
• A type of illustration that locates related
  single values on the x-y-grid and then connects
  the values with a line.

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Charts Continued

• Organization Chart
• A type of illustration that depicts the hierarchy
  of an company or agency by labeling boxes or
  other figures as either officers or offices and
  then showing the relationship between the offices
  with lines drawn between them.
• Pareto Chart
• A type of graph that represents the total
  distribution of a given variable, such as the
  total tax revenues or total sales, as a
  accumulation of all the depicted values.

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Charts Continued

• Scattergram (Scatter plot)
• A type of graph used for correlations that
  locates all the data points that have x and y
  values where the x- and y-axes indicate values of
  two variables that are being correlated.
• Table
• A type of chart that places data or classes of
  objects into columns and rows, where the position
  may reflect rank or importance but does not
  illustrate quantifiable difference based on
  position in the chart.

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Prepare the Information

• Follow these steps
• Collect data
• Prepare sketches (can be electronic quick charts
  created by the database program)
• Locate samples
• Determine placement

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The Final Product and Its Impact

• Key Concept 10.3
• The ultimate goal of the writing process is to
  create an effective product. The document must
  have graphic illustrations appropriate to the
  message and must elicit the appropriate, desired
  impact on the reader.

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The Final Product and Its Impact

• Section Outline
• Judging the Final Product
• Cautions and Warnings
• A Concluding Note

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Cautions and Warnings

• Strive for
• Simplicity
• Clarity
• Be guided by a principle of scarcity versus
  overabundance!
• There can be too much of a good thing