Scattergrams & Scatterplots


Description:

"Sometimes referred to as a point, dot, or symbol graph. Two dimensional scatter graphs are sometimes referred to as XY graphs or XY scatter graphs. Three-dimensional scatter graphs are sometimes referred to as XYZ graphs or XYZ scatter graphs. Scatter graphs are a variation of point graphs with all quantitative scales or a combination of quantitative and sequence scales. They are used extensively for exploring relationships, particularly correlations between two or more data sets." (Harris, 1999, p. 343)

Other communication formats:
Pie charts, bar charts, line charts, area charts, organization charts, flow charts.

Strengths:

  • Make obvious clustering of data.

Uses:

  • Statistical correlations
  • Useful in plotting two aspects of the data, e.g. temperature AND rainfall, height AND weight

Weaknesses:

Links: