“Instead of winging it, always check the orientation of your plot before drawing conclusions!”
September Results:
The cartoon for our 112th cartoon caption contest in September is shown above. Amongst the submissions for the contest, the judges found two winning captions from student contestants. The first was “Instead of winging it, always check the orientation of your plot before drawing conclusions!,” submitted by Erin Franke, a student from Carnegie Mellon University. Erin’s caption can be used to check the axes and orientation of graphs as an early step in interpreting them. Our second winning caption was “Good data visualization has the power to flip perspectives,” submitted by Sara Colando, also a student at Carnegie Mellon University. Sara’s caption can be used in discussing how the proper interpretation of graphical displays can have the power to change minds and propel societal change. Honorable mentions this month go to Laila Poisson from Henry Ford Health for her caption “Interpretation hangs on well-defined axes” and to Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso for his caption “Swapping axes can make it hard to tell which variable is dependent -- it drives you batty!,” which can both be used to emphasize the standard practice of putting the dependent variable on the Y-axis and the independent variable on the X-axis. A final honorable mention goes to Michael Posner from Villanova University for his caption “This is why three out of four bats feared that the bug population was in decline!,” who adds context to the interpretation issues brought out by the cartoon.
Thanks to everyone who submitted a caption and congratulations to our winners!