Internet Exercises

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Chapter 9: Graphics and Visual Information

Internet Exercises

This activity contains 2 questions.

Find a graph, diagram, or other visual representation of quantitative (statistical or numerical) data at a Web site of your choice. (Hint: Start with sites for newspapers and magazines that also appear in print.) In a short essay, provide an overall description of the visual, the URL at which your readers can view the visual, and a commentary on how it succeeds or fails as ethical communication. Use the following questions to help you with your commentary:

Are x and y axes clearly marked?
Are there gaps in the information provided?
Do graphical features distort the information?
Does the accompanying text clearly correspond with the graphical representation?

Be sure to point to specific elements of the graphic in your commentary. Use what you have learned from this chapter as evidence supporting the graphic's success or failure as ethical communication.

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

Visit several Web sites, preferably sites that are related to your field or major, and find at least four different types of graphics. Select the ones that you feel are particularly effective and the ones that you feel are ineffective, and describe your reasons, using what you’ve learned from the textbook and classroom discussions. Be sure to provide a general description of each graphic and the URLs at which your readers can view the graphics.

Challenge Question: As technical communicators, we use illustrations, photographs, and other visuals to convey information. However, online graphics are moving out of two dimensions and into the third. Consider the role of new media in online technical communication—virtual reality, for instance—and how those new technologies might shape how we convey information to our audiences. Just as different kinds of charts and graphs change the nature of the information they contain, so do new technologies change the information they present.

The following links take you to three different virtual "spaces" that allow you to navigate through them using different kinds of interfaces. (Note: You will need to download QuickTime to view the Cubic VR Gallery.)

Vatican Exhibit, Main Hall
EMuseum at Minnesota State University, Mankato
Apple's QuickTime Cubic VR Gallery (choose one "space" to visit)

In an essay, fully describe each of the three interfaces. Describe how your experience of "space" changed with each interface. Choose from the following questions to help you evaluate the relative usefulness of each interface:

What is the intended purpose for each approach?
How did the approach to visual representation change the meaning of what you were exploring?
How was each interface effective regarding what information it displayed, how accessible it was, and how effective it was for its intended purpose?
Were any of these approaches effective as a stand-alone visual representation of the information? Which did you feel was most effective and why?
Which approaches might be effectively used in combination and why?
What other uses might a technical communicator make of virtual reality to help explain a concept?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

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