Graphs
Part 1
Graphs present an avenue of assessing particular aspects of the society that are relevant to many individuals such as policymakers who can use them in making predictions. They reflect an accurate picture of the community in some cases and may be misleading in others. It is essential to have an in-depth assessment of a graphical display to comprehend the tested correlation or the causative factor that it entails.
A graph creates a picture to develop a relevant hypothesis that may be of use in understanding various phenomena inhabiting particular people. The figure entitled “Marriage” concerns itself with out-of-wedlock births and the campaign for same-sex marriage in the Netherlands between the period of 1970 to 2003. It reflects the total percentage of total births within the period as it displays the landmarks that led to a democratic state regarding human sexuality. The pattern showed exhibits when the first court case was enacted (1989) to the year of the supreme court loss (1990). The graph captures 1991 as the time that incurred symbolic marriage registers transcending to registered partnership passes in 1997. Finally, same-sex marriage gives in the year 2000. The graph which entails data from the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics reflects an increasing pattern of the percentage of total births with the red bars indicating periods where the annual increment showcases two percentile points that double the average yearly increase of the previous 15 years.
“Marriage” reflects the scenario in the Netherlands from 1970 to 2003. The viewer is subjected to view the essential landmarks that transpired in the mentioned era concerning out-of-wedlock births and the campaign for same-sex marriage. The latter stages that show red bars can allude to the graph displaying the correlation of the two factors.
Part 2
Graphs, in most cases, entail a plot of two variables that attempt to exhibit one aspect as the cause of the other or related in some way. The truth of the matter is that this is not always the case as it is essential to know the difference between correlation and causation as some graphs may be misleading. Displaying the meaning “Marriage” is trying to convey and posting a critique of “IT’S A THING: The Sports Illustrated Curse” would capture the mentioned aspect.
Firstly, “Marriage” is trying to showcase the increasing percentage of out-of-wedlock births subject to the campaign for same-sex marriage from the year 1970 to 2003. It utilizes a small margin within the y-axis of between 0% to 35% to draw a viewer’s attention to a deceptive plot on how significant the change has been. It uses blue and red bars with the latter displaying two percentile points that double the average yearly increase of the previous 15 years. “Marriage” captures the red color from the point where registered partnership passes, which conclusively shows that the factor that it attempts to prove is that out-of-wedlock births correlate with same-sex marriage. The viewer would be deceived to the point of mistakenly associating the correlation to causation given the graph fails to capture other relevant factors that may contribute to out-of-wedlock births such as population increment of the Netherlands within the same time frame.
Secondly, “IT’S A THING: The Sports Illustrated Curse” reflects the performance of three athletes within some era. It is concerned with the underperformance of the sportspeople after they appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine with the question of whether the publication casts a curse on them. The main weakness of the graph is that despite labeling the y-axis as performance and the x-axis as time, the viewer has no information on the scale in question making it difficult to know which period is displayed and what level of performance is showcased. The three athletes’ curves entail a peak where a point is marked, which is followed by a downward trend. One would only assume that the end is where the sportspeople get published, which reflects a weakness as viewers are subjected to a wild guess.
“Marriage” attempts to showcase a relationship between out-of-wedlock births vis-à-vis the campaign for same-sex marriage. “IT’S A THING: The Sports Illustrated Curse” reflects many weaknesses such as no scales and crucial labeling that would be utilized to interpret the graph. The two capture how figures can be misleading and compel one to confuse the issue of correlation and causation.