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Using Visual Aids / Using Visual Aids / GraphicsGraphics

Using Visual Aids / Using Visual Aids / GraphicsGraphics

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Reasons for using visual aids:

1. To simplify ideas2. To reinforce ideas3. To provide a different entry point

into the discussion.4. To create interest

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Formatting Visual Aids

1. Make sure visual aids are neat.2. Keep the visuals simple.3. Refer to each visual clearly in the text

BEFORE placing it on the page.(Ex: Figure 1 below shows….)

4. Place each visual in a convenient place for the reader to see.(same page, opposite page, other pages,

attachment or appendices)

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Formatting Visual Aids (cont.)

5. For visuals used in conjunction with reports, explain the significance of the visual in the report when introducing the visual.

6. Provide a title for every visual.7. Number Tables and Figures

consecutively but separately, throughout.

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Formatting Visual Aids (cont.)

8. Give credit for the visual if you did not compile yourself or if compiled using borrowed data.

9. Align decimals when they are presented in columns.

10.Where possible, spell out words rather than use abbreviations.

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How to Discuss Visual Aids

May explain:• Elementary information – one fact

Example: …on Wednesday, the stock’s price rose.

• Intermediate information – a trend in one category.Example: …as the week progressed, the

stock price fluctuated.

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How to Discuss Visual Aids (cont.)

• Overall information – a trend that relates several categories.Example: …after the price dropped, investors rushed to buy at a “low”.

• Background – who ordered or conducted the study, reasons for doing so and problems they wanted to

investigate.

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How to Discuss Visual Aids (cont.)

• Methodology – how the data were collected.

• Significance – the impact of the data for some other concern, for instance, investor confidence.

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Types of visual aids

• Pie chart – visual impression is of parts of a whole, where the segments total 100 percent.

• Vertical and horizontal bar charts – visual impression is of discrete quantities, effective in representing

comparisons and contrasts.

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Types of visual aids (cont.)

• Line chart – visual impression is of progression over time, effective in showing chronological change.

• Tables – organize data into rows and columns to simplify groups of related numbers.

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The graph below compares the number of visits to two new music sites on the web.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information

shown below.

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introduction• The graph shows people using new

music places on the Internet in fifteen days period of time namely personal choice and trendy pop music. The overall trend shows fluctuation with slight Increase towards the end of the period.

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• Music Choice websites has 40,000 people on first-day. Half of them backed out the next day. In Contrast , Pop Parade net sites are visited by 120,000 music lovers on day one which decreased slightly on the next day . After 3rd day the enthusiasm for both music lines on Internet dropped slowly- reaching maximum fall of 40,000 on 7th day. Whereas Music choice gains popularity, slightly Improving to get 30,000 viewers on screen, but is still less visitors than Pop group . both gain remarkable recovery after a few fluctuations for 8th and 9th day , reaching to their peaks of one and a half thousand new viewers for Pop Parade on 11th day showing a contrast of very few people visiting Music choice for the same day. Music choice gained popularity on 12th day with more than 120,000 new visitors

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• In the end of the period Pop sites were visited by maximum viewers of 180,000 whereas sites located to Music choice were not explored by more than 80,000 explorers on the last day of the report.

• In the end of the period Pop sites were visited by maximum viewers of 180,000 whereas sites located to Music choice are not explored by more than one third of that same explorers on the last day of the report. The trend is expected to remain.

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rt. The trend is expected to remain.

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