Our team has discovered three major errors on the graph. First of all, the graph does not have an accurate and clear title. Readers may not have enough understanding on what it is talking about when they first look at the graph.
On the other hand, he words ‘Rough and rewarding’ should be erased since it is not a formal title or information on the scale which may cause confusion to readers. Also, the labels of the vertical and horizontal axis are missing or not clearly specified. For example, on the vertical axis, it doesn’t state clearly which country’s currency it is using like US, Euro or Australian dollars. This may lead to misunderstanding on readers. And on the horizontal axis, the unit ‘year’ is missing here although most of us can guess what it refers to.
There is one moon mistake on both axes, as they ignore to uses ‘when the scale do not starts from zero. Next, we can observe that vertical axis of the graph is not drawn on scale. We can see that the scale increases logarithmically with the figure ten as a base. It is not an appropriate and correct axis since the vertical interval between one another is not equally spaced and it will exaggerate the amount of return they gain by investing in Australian shares. Intention to mislead After analyzing the graph, we conclude that the owner of the graph intent to mislead readers or cause misunderstanding among them.
We estimate that he tries to attract investors to invest on Australian shares other than cash and bonds. He intends to enlarge the scale on vertical axis and confuse readers that they may have optimistic return if they can invest on Australian shares as soon as possible. Those who do not pay enough attention or ignore the effect may fall into the trap and suffer. Suggestions for improvement Our team has several suggestions provided to improve the graph above. As we had mentioned, a comprehensive title is missing. “Likely Rewards of investing 100 in July 1 928 from 1928-2008” can be a suitable title for the graph.
In addition, we should be aware of the figures being used. If it does not start from zero, modification must be made like adding so as to provide a clear and informative graph for readers. Finally, the vertical and horizontal scales are not drawn on scale. Before we start, we should determine the scale first. On vertical axis, the difference between each interval can be $10000 and a ID-year interval can be used on horizontal one. We should not attempt to adjust the scale to match with the desired results we want.
