1 2.5 Reading a chart

Diagrams are a common graphical way of representing information. Processes and ideas can often be summarised more effectively in diagrammatic form than in words.

As a learner you need to be comfortable with reading graphical information. You also need to learn how to read diagrams in the sense of extracting information from them and interpreting what they mean.

A chart is a type of diagram used to summarise large amounts of numerical information in a graphical form. Charts also provide a useful way of showing relationships between different values.

You will come across different types of chart, such as line graphs, histograms, pie charts and bar charts. They are used for different purposes. In the remainder of this study session we shall focus on bar charts.