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References for Displaying Categorical Data

Curated resources to deepen your understanding of frequency tables, bar graphs, pie charts, two-way tables, and association between categorical variables.

Wikipedia Articles

  1. Categorical variable - Wikipedia - Explains categorical (qualitative) variables including nominal and ordinal types. Provides context for understanding when data represents categories rather than numerical measurements.

  2. Bar chart - Wikipedia - Comprehensive coverage of bar graphs including construction, variations like grouped and stacked bars, and best practices for effective visualization. Includes historical context and common uses.

  3. Pie chart - Wikipedia - Discusses pie chart construction, appropriate uses, and limitations. Covers the ongoing debate about when pie charts are effective versus when bar charts are preferred.

Textbooks

  1. The Practice of Statistics by Daren S. Starnes, Josh Tabor, and Dan Yates - W.H. Freeman (2018) - Chapter 1 covers categorical data displays including frequency tables and bar graphs. The treatment of two-way tables and conditional distributions in later chapters provides excellent exam preparation.

  2. Stats: Modeling the World by David E. Bock, Paul F. Velleman, and Richard D. De Veaux - Pearson (2019) - Features engaging explanations of categorical data analysis with memorable real-world examples. The sections on association and Simpson's Paradox are particularly well-written.

Online Resources

  1. Khan Academy: Categorical Data Displays - Khan Academy - Video tutorials on creating and interpreting bar graphs and pie charts, with interactive exercises on two-way tables and calculating marginal and conditional distributions.

  2. Seeing Theory: Basic Probability - Brown University - Beautiful interactive visualizations demonstrating how to display categorical data. The frequency and two-way table modules provide hands-on experience with the concepts.

  3. Census at School Project - American Statistical Association - Real survey data from students worldwide that can be used to practice creating categorical data displays. Includes lesson plans and data analysis activities.

  4. NCTM Illuminations: Bar Grapher - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics - Interactive tool for creating bar graphs from data. Allows experimentation with different categorical datasets and visualization options.

  5. Gapminder Tools - Gapminder Foundation - Data visualization platform with extensive categorical data about countries and demographics. Excellent for exploring real-world two-way relationships between variables.