ENG 472/572 Topics in Tech Comm: Data-Based Storytelling
(Summer 2014, 2 credits, online)
People tend to trust data more than text, but numbers, statistics, charts, and graphs are merely an author’s interpretation of data. They can be used to reveal of obfuscate meaning just as easily as words. The benefit of data visualization is to “place data into a human context” (Jer Thorpe) and to construct a narrative that helps readers understand what they are seeing. This course will not make you an expert in creating data visualizations, but the readings, discussions, activities, and assignments will allow you to experiment with some common forms, such as charts, infographics, and dashboards, and consider how to humanize data for your readers.