Charts and diagrams are often used to present data that would be hard to understand in the written form, in a an eye-catching and user-friendly way. Large amounts of complex data can be presented in a much more readable and understandable format, if even basic charts and diagrams are used.

Choosing a chart to suit your own needs must be based on decisions you make about the type of data you have, the amount of data you want to illustrate, and the purpose of showing the data in the first place.

What you need to remember is that whatever choice of chart or diagram you make, the end result must be clear and easy to understand. In general, keep in mind that a chart or diagram is used to give a visual record of data, to help compare the importance of variables in relation to each other. Usually then, they are unsuited to illustrating precise numerical information. In these cases tables of data ought to be used.

There are four main areas of this section and you can access them at any time using the navigation bar on the left. The four sections are:

• Explanation - a guide to different styles of graphs including bar charts, pie charts and frequency curves
• Illustration - illustrations of the various different styles of graphs and other forms of data representation
• Worksheets - a range of worksheets on choosing graphs and interpreting data
• Review - a brief summary of the topics covered in the 'picturing' section and a final activity on representing data through graphs