Visual displays of data provide you and anyone else with a graphical display of what is often a complex array of quantitative data. A key strength of visualization is the ability to quickly enlighten you with key data. Rather than solely relying on your audience to interpret numerical values and statistics explained in a narrative, a visual display can easily illustrate descriptions, relationships, and trends. Although the focus is on simplicity, the researcher has an obligation to present these graphical displays in a clear and meaningful way.

For this Discussion, you will explore ways to appropriately display data.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review the Learning Resources for this week related to frequency distributions and graphic displays of data.
• Using the SPSS software, open the General Social Survey dataset found in this week’s Learning Resources.
• Next, create a figure or table from a few selected variables within the dataset.
• Finally, think about what is good about how the data are displayed in the figure or table you created and what is not so good.

Frankfort-Nachmias, C., Leon-Guerrero, A., & Davis, G. (2020). Social statistics for a diverse society (9th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

• Chapter 2, “The Organization and Graphic Presentation Data” (pp. 27-74)

Wagner, III, W. E. (2020). Using IBM® SPSS® statistics for research methods and social science statistics (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

• Chapter 5, “Charts and Graphs”
• Chapter 11, “Editing Output”

https://waldenwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2013/02/general-guidance-on-data-displays.html

Be sure to support your Main Post and Response Post with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA Style.