USA Today Snapshots Graphs—
Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to compare different types of graphs; to understand and explain why different graphs are used for different types of data; to analyze how particular graphs display information; to understand the reason that people may have for making graphs in particular ways; to view graphs critically and to formulate and ask questions related to the appearance and design of graphs.

Directions: Find two different types of graphs on the USA Today Snapshots Website:

USA Today Snapshots

1) Write a short descriptive paragraph about each of your two graphs. Give information about the title, type of graph, data included in the graph, and any other important or significant details that you notice. Use words like more, least, most, less, same, etc. Use numbers (including fractions, ratios, decimals, and percents if appropriate) to make your description more precise.

2) Complete the following activities for each of your two graphs (You may write your answers on notebook paper or you may type them using the word processor):

• What conclusions can you draw from the data?



• Why do you think this data is displayed in this format instead of some other?



• Was this type of graph a good choice for this data? Why or why not?



• Write a question that can be answered by looking at this graph.



• Write two facts that you learned about the topic from reading this graph.



• Write one question about this topic that you would like answered that cannot be answered by the data contained on the graph.