Graphing Tutorial: Scatterplot Graphs Walkthrough

A scatter plot is a type of mathematical diagram where values for typically two variables for a set of data are plotted on a Cartesian plane. Usually the independent variable is plotted along the horizontal axis and the dependent variable is plotted along the vertical axis. For example, if the variables are weight and height, weight would be plotted on y-axis and height would be plotted on the x-axis. A scatter plot helps to see how the two variables correlate by plotting the line of best fit based on the plotted data points.

1. Click on the green boxes to open text boxes for your title and axes labels.
2. Once you’ve entered all three labels, entry circles will appear at both ends of the x and y axes. Click on these to open text boxes for your minimum and maximum axes values.
   • TIP:Look carefully at the table listing the expected years of schooling and projected children per woman for each country. For the minimum x value, choose a number slightly lower than the lowest value in the Projected Children per Woman column, and for the maximum x value, choose a number slightly higher than the most children projected per woman. Similarly, for the y-axis, choose values below the fewest years of schooling reported and above the most. You won’t have a chance to adjust these after you start graphing.
   • TIP:Your minimum values should be greater than or equal to 0. Your maximum values should be less than or equal to 1000.
3. Once you’ve chosen your minimum and maximum values for the axes, intermediate values will appear automatically. These numbers may not match those in your table. That just means your plot points will fall between them.
4. Text boxes will appear in the menu on the right for you to enter your x values and y values. You can copy the numbers from the table exactly as they are written: with a decimal point and one decimal place. Press the ‘Next’ button and a blue dot will appear in the location you entered on the graph.
   • TIP:The ‘Clear’ button will clear all the data from your chart.
   • TIP:The ‘Draw Best-Fit Line’ button will work as soon as you have at least two points. You can add more points and redraw the line.
   • TIP:Wait until you’ve graphed all your points to draw a line of best fit. The results will be more accurate.