Reading infographics and diagrams as evidence

Overview

Why an infographic needs more caution than the same numbers in a table, how pictograms distort a doubling, and what a transect, a flow diagram and a design drawing each support.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is an infographic, and what is it doing in a resource booklet?

   Model answer

   It is a designed graphic that combines figures, icons, short text and sometimes a map to communicate a message quickly. It is useful because it summarises a lot of material and usually states the headline claims the proposal rests on. It is also, unlike a plain table, built to persuade, so it should be read for its message and its design choices as well as for its numbers.

2. 2

   Why does an infographic need more caution than the same numbers in a table?

   Model answer

   Because the design is selecting for you. Figures are chosen for impact, the ones that weaken the message are usually absent, sources and dates are often omitted, comparisons may lack a baseline, and visual devices give some values more prominence than their size warrants. Extract the actual numbers, ask what is not shown, and check whether a source is given before treating any claim on it as established.

3. 3

   Icons or pictograms are used to show a doubling. Why can that distort what you take from the graphic?

   Model answer

   Because if the icon is scaled up in both height and width to represent twice the value, its area becomes roughly four times as large and the eye reads area, not height. The same distortion affects scaled circles and three-dimensional bars. Read the printed values rather than the shapes, and if only shapes are given, treat any comparison as approximate.

4. 4

   What can you get from a cross-section or transect diagram supplied with a scheme?

   Model answer

   The vertical dimension: height and depth relative to surroundings, the gradient of a slope or beach, the level of a defence against the level of the land and water behind it, and how far a structure would rise above nearby buildings. Check whether the vertical scale has been exaggerated relative to the horizontal, as it usually is, because that makes slopes look far steeper than they are.

5. 5

   How do you use a systems or flow diagram in an argument about a proposal?

   Model answer

   Use it to trace consequences. It shows inputs, stores, transfers and outputs, so it lets you follow what a change at one point does elsewhere - sediment intercepted by a defence not reaching the beach downdrift, or water shed from new hard surfaces arriving in the channel faster. That chain of reasoning is how you turn a described impact into an explained one, which is what makes an argument geographical.

6. 6

   A diagram sets out the phases of a scheme over several years. What can you argue from it?

   Model answer

   Timing and its consequences: how long before benefits are actually delivered, how long disruption lasts, whether the expensive elements come early, and whether the phasing allows the scheme to be halted or adjusted if conditions change. Timing often separates options that look similar on total cost, and a phased option can be recommended precisely because it keeps choices open.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.