Technical Communication, Essay Example

The image contains a lot of information, so it is hard to detect the data trends right away. This information would be better displayed as a line graph, in which each profession listed is represented by a different color, because it would allow the viewer to instantly detect the majors that have increased in popularity since 2009, the ones that decreased in popularity, and the ones that show no trend. Furthermore, the information posted in this graph may be more valuable if information about major popularity was summarized for a span of about ten years, which would provide more accurate information about the increases and decreases illustrated.

Rather than using a soldier figure to represent the number of members of the various branches of the U.S. armed forces, a simple bar should be use. While the artist is trying to be creative, it’s difficult to detect the value that is supposed to be represented by the coast guard. Furthermore, the y axis represents the number of members in thousands. Instead of stating it like this, it would be beneficial to write out these numbers to represent their true values so this chart is easier to interpret instantly.

It is difficult to determine the values that are represented by the pie chart. Therefore, the percentage that each pie slice represents should be written on it. Otherwise, these values should appear next to the key. It would also be essential to include information that will allow the viewer to interpret the monetary value of each percentage, so the chart title should include information revealing the total expenses of the company.

Since the y axis isn’t labelled, it is unclear what the numbers listed represent. This could be in dollars, thousands of dollars, or cents. In addition, a line graph is not adequate to represent this type of information because PC components are not a trend. Therefore, a bar graph should be used instead. The x axis should also be labelled “PC Components” because although this information can be inferred, it isn’t clear.

The amount of damage done by hurricanes can be measured in terms of homes damaged or destroyed, property damage, and deaths. Compared to the other major hurricanes in U.S. history, Hurricane Katrina has resulted in the most homes damaged or destroyed and property damaged, but not in deaths. Hurricane San Felipe, which occurred in 1928 resulted in the greatest amount of deaths compared to Hurricane’s Katrina, Ivan, Andrew, and Camille. Although it was reported that San Felipe resulted in less than one billion dollars of property damage, the number of homes destroyed or damaged has not been reported, which prevents us from making a clear comparison of this measurement between San Felipe and Katrina. An important note is that Hurricane San Felipe occurred 77 years before Hurricane Sandy and this graph does not state whether inflation was accounted for. Therefore, even though Hurricane San Felipe appears to have cause less than one billion dollars worth of damage, we cannot reasonably make this comparison unless there is confirmation that the difference between the value of the dollar in 1928 and 2005 has been accounted for. In fact, mathematicians have determined that one dollar in 1928 is worth $13.7 today. Therefore, it is possible that Hurricane San Felipe was more monetarily damaging than Sandy, but the exact 1928 dollar value was reported, so this cannot be accounted for in data analysis.

References

Market M. (2012) Technical Communication 10th ed. Bedford St. Martin’s.