Class 13

Today

Announcements

Class 13 Quiz

1. Name one of the functions used in R to convert columns to rows or vice versa. (3 pts)

2. Name two strategies for reducing the clutter, or chart junk, on a graphic. (4 pts)

3. Name at least one reason why you would want to get your data fully prepared in R before uploading to Datawrapper/Flourish? (2 pts)

4. If you used both Datawrapper and Flourish, did you like one or other better? If you only used one, why did you pick that one? (1 pt)

Checking your data

• Your strategy for a data check will depend on a few things:

  • How complicated your analysis is

  • The stakes of your story

  • Who you have available to you

• Commenting your code is key

• Force yourself to really examine what each line does, both in terms of the logic and if the code is accurate for what you’re trying to do

• Try to replicate the analysis another way - some people will do using another programming language, or you could use Excel

• Let go of defenses and ego as you and/or a friend/colleague are going through it

Documenting your work and GitHub

• Your methodology should explain the logic (when not obvious) of the steps you took, as well as potentially outlining those steps.

  • How much you need to justify certain choices is somewhat of a judgement call and may depend on how controversial or complex your work is.

• Your methodology can live in multiple places / have multiple layers:

  • In the text of the story (good for: if needed for your audience to understand your findings)

  • In a box at the bottom of the story (good for: if it’s relatively brief, or if there are things pretty important for a general audience person to know)

  • In a ReadMe file on GitHub (good for: if it’s more involved, it you don’t have a good way to include on the page, or if only highly specialized readers would want to know the details)

  • In the comment of your code (good for: the details, or if you want others to be able to use and adapt your code. Generally NOT sufficient by itself)

Documenting your work and GitHub

• Examples of code commenting and methodology

  • https://github.com/egawthrop

  • https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-boarding-schools

• GitHub is used for lots of things, tailored for web developers. We will focus on:

  • setting up a GitHub

  • setting up a Repository (read: folder for a project, even though they have another product actually called project)

Break

AI policy

Workshop - what do you want people to get from your visuals?

Lab time

Tasks before next class

Checkout

1. Do you feel behind, on-track, or ahead?
2. About how long did the reading take you?
3. About how long did the coding notebook take you?
4. About how long did story-based assignment take you (including research time)?
5. Any other feedback, notes on how you’re feeling, etc?