Lesson 3 of 12Article14 min
Visualising Data & Distributions
Shape vocabulary: symmetric, left/right skewed, unimodal, bimodal, outliers. Shape guides which summary and which probability model you reach for next.
Choose the right picture
Shape vocabulary: symmetric, left/right skewed, unimodal, bimodal, outliers. Shape guides which summary and which probability model you reach for next.
- Bar chart / pie: categorical counts or proportions.
- Histogram: distribution shape of one quantitative variable.
- Scatterplot: relationship between two quantitative variables.
- Time series: values ordered by time.
Always label axes and units. A pretty chart with unclear scales is worse than a plain table.