Say It With Charts
Workbook
GENE ZELAZNY
Edited by Steve Sakson
McGraw-Hill
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Copyright © 2005 by Gene Zelazny. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America.
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Contents
SAY IT WITH CHARTS WORKBOOK
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN TO SAY IT
WITH CHARTS
CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
INDEX
1
15
120
122
iii
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Say It With Charts
WorkBook
Introduction
In my book Say It with Charts, I lay out some easy techniques
that business people can use to create visual presentations that
are powerful, persuasive, and eye-catching. However, if you’re
like many who face the challenge of mastering this skill, you
know it takes time, patience, and, most of all, practice, practice,
and more practice. That's why I offer you this workbook.
In it, you'll find three things:
• A series of business charts that I've gathered from
real-life situations
• A challenge to you to improve them
• Suggested improvements to communicate
the information more quickly and clearly.
Your challenge in this workbook is to avoid the temptation
of simply flipping the page to see my solution. Instead, I
encourage you to study the charts and use the space you'll find
below them to sketch your ideas for improvement. Then, turn
Copyright © 2005 by Gene Zelazny. Click here for terms of use.
1
the page to compare your ideas with what I came up with in
the real world and what led to my thinking.
As you accept this challenge, understand that I am in no way
claiming that my answer is the best one. In fact, I have every
confidence that your answer could work just as well. The
important thing is that you take a critical look to determine
what the level of improvement can be.
Also, understand that there's nothing requiring you to do these
exercises sequentially. Start anywhere. Dip in and out. Come
back to the same example again as new ideas come up. I hope
that after you've done a few of these you'll conclude that "playing
it with charts" can actually be fun.
Before you start, let me offer this quick refresher on the
fundamentals of charts. As readers of Say It with Charts
will remember, charts generally fall into two broad categories:
• Data charts, also called quantitative charts, depict
numbers graphically to make a point.
• Concept charts, also called nonquantitative charts,
use words and images.
Of course, some charts use elements of both categories.
2
Data Charts
We can translate data into five kinds of comparisons.
Each comparison is shown best by a specific chart form.
Here's a reminder of how they are best used.
KINDS OF COMPARISON
COMPONENT
ITEM
TIME SERIES
FREQUENCY
CORRELATION
S
M
R
O
F
T
R
A
H
C
C
I
S
A
B
E
P
I
R
A
B
N
M
U
L
O
C
E
N
L
I
T
O
D
3