Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the third edition
- Acknowledgements
- PART I PROBLEM: THE ILLNESS
- PART II SOLUTION: SYMPTOMATIC RELIEF
- 3 Guidelines to clearer writing
- 4 Is there a better word?
- 5 Superfluous words
- 6 Imprecise words and phrases
- 7 Superfluous phrases
- 8 Trouble with short words
- 9 Use of the passive voice
- 10 Consistency: number and tenses
- 11 Circumlocution, metaphor and cliché
- 12 Word order and pronouns
- 13 Punctuation
- 14 Constructing sentences
- 15 Drawing clear graphs
- PART III PRACTICE: RECUPERATION
- Appendix: examples to rewrite
- References and further reading
- Index
15 - Drawing clear graphs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the third edition
- Acknowledgements
- PART I PROBLEM: THE ILLNESS
- PART II SOLUTION: SYMPTOMATIC RELIEF
- 3 Guidelines to clearer writing
- 4 Is there a better word?
- 5 Superfluous words
- 6 Imprecise words and phrases
- 7 Superfluous phrases
- 8 Trouble with short words
- 9 Use of the passive voice
- 10 Consistency: number and tenses
- 11 Circumlocution, metaphor and cliché
- 12 Word order and pronouns
- 13 Punctuation
- 14 Constructing sentences
- 15 Drawing clear graphs
- PART III PRACTICE: RECUPERATION
- Appendix: examples to rewrite
- References and further reading
- Index
Summary
We have urged that the maxim for good medical writing is the shorter word in the shorter construction. The same applies to illustrations: they should be simple; they should show what you want to show and no more; they should be honest and not distort your results; and they should be clear at first reading. This chapter outlines how to produce the most common type of illustration in medical scientific papers, the diagrammatic representation of numerical data: the graph. There is instruction on other types of illustration in some of the books in the bibliography; and we will not be giving more than the very simplest of statistical advice.
Tufte (see Reference books, p. 240) uses the idea of data-ink and non-data ink: ink that is needed to indicate a number, and ink that is embellishment. In his comprehensive book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, he writes, ‘Just as a good editor of prose ruthlessly prunes out unnecessary words, so a designer of statistical graphics should prune out ink that fails to present fresh data-information.’ The main reason for non-data-ink is the increasing use of computer packages, which produce all types of fancy diagram at the tap of a keyboard. A magazine review of an upgraded graphic package began: ‘Presentation is about creating an impression, so it is of prime importance to get the material just right.’
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Medical WritingA Prescription for Clarity, pp. 193 - 202Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006