Building Bar GraphsBar graphs can be used to show how something changes over time or to compare different times. Bar graphs are good for plotting data that spans many years (or days, weeks . . .), has really big changes from year to year (or day to day . . .), or they can be used for comparing different items in a related category (for example: comparing something between different states). The following pages describe the different parts of a bar graph.  The Title The title offers a short explanation of what is in your graph. This helps the reader identify what they are about to look at. It can be creative or simple as long as it tells what is in the graph. The title of this graph tells the reader that the graph contains information about the 2004 unemployment rates of persons 25 years old and older, organized by highest level of education. The Source The source explains where you found the information that is in your graph. It is important to give credit to those who collected your data! In this graph, the source tells us that we found our information from the NCES Common Core of Data. X-Axis Bar graphs have an x-axis and a y-axis. In most bar graphs, like the one above, the x-axis runs horizontally (flat). Sometimes bar graphs are made so that the bars are sidewise like in the graph below. Then the x-axis has numbers representing different time periods or names of things being compared. In these graphs, the x-axis has names of states. Y-Axis In most bar graphs, like the one above, the y-axis runs vertically (us and down). Sometimes bar graphs are made so that the bars are sideways like in the graph to the left. Then the y-axis is horizontal (flat). Typically, the y-axis has numbers for the amount of stuff being measured. The y-axis usually starts counting at 0 and can be divided into as many equal parts as you want to. In these bar graphs, the y-axis is measuring the number of schools.
The Data The most important part of your graph is the information, or data, it contains. Bar graphs can present data in many ways and can present more than one group of data at a time. The first graph is a regular bar graph with one group of data. The second graph has two groups of data that are stacked. The last graph is another graph with two groups of data, but they are presented side by side instead of stacked.
The Legend The legend tells us what each bar represents. Just like on a map, the legend helps the reader understand what they are looking at. Legend examples can be found in the second and third graphs above. |
