A bar chart refers to a plan or graph that compares different categories of data using rectangular bars, either vertically or horizontally. The bar length is proportional to the values. New York Times published a newspaper on 10 th Feb 2022 and an article ‘How the pandemic has affected weddings,’ and individuals used the graph to show annual weddings from 1970 to 2022. Yearly there were 2.1 million weddings in the United States, but in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there was a drop by 38 percent to 1.3 million weddings (Osisanwo, 2021). The key aspect of a graph that makes it meaningful in articles is the summary that is brought out in the discussion and analysis section. For instance, in the article mentioned above, the graph has summarized individuals virtually conducted most of the weddings in 2020 with few guests due to government restrictions on COVID-19 as other weddings were postponed.
Contextually, graphs give a clear visual impression of the key aspects discussed, making the data understood by the reader or researcher. In 2021 the COVID-19 restrictions like social distancing were relaxed, and there was an improvement to 1.9 million weddings from the previous year. The decline in several weddings has worried countries’ fertility rates, as per the article (Osisanwo, 2021). Graphs are used to communicate information and entertain the article reader. Comparing the values of weddings in the nation for several years helps the reader predict the future wedding trend from the previous data. The reader gets a clear picture of the article presented. Besides, it covers large data on a smaller page.
Simple, standard, and scalable are the critical items that make the chart valuable in the content of an article. Simply refers to how easy the variable can be interpreted. The title should be simple and to the point (Osisanwo, 2021). The data should be standardized and not complex for easy understanding. It also creates consistency across article organizations. In addition, scalable is another critical item that refers to a project’s ability to visualize the growing amount of data obtained. Individuals should use the right charts if the visual scalability is increased. Conclusively, charts are given the reader easy work in data comparison and analysis,