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Work · Guided lesson

Choose honest evidence and charts

About 32 minutes
Work at your own pace. Optional videos take extra time.
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Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

Select data, examples, quotations, and visuals that clarify the claim without distortion.

The idea

Evidence earns belief only when the audience can see what it shows, what it does not, and where it came from.

Try it

One step at a time.

Use the sample or information you have permission to use. Keep your work as you go. You can pause between steps.

  1. 1

    Verify definitions, date ranges, sample, units, comparison baseline, and source for every material number.

  2. 2

    Choose chart forms by relationship: comparison, trend, distribution, composition, correlation, or process.

  3. 3

    Use honest axes, direct labels, necessary context, and emphasis that highlights rather than manipulates.

  4. 4

    Cite sources on the slide or in accessible notes and obtain rights for third-party imagery.

Example

See how it works.

Priya replaces a 3D pie chart with a labeled cohort trend and notes that the latest cohort has only 30 days of follow-up.

Check your work

Did you cover these?

  • Your work includes an evidence table and three publication-ready visuals with claims, sources, context, and limitations.
  • Check this common mistake: Truncating axes, mixing definitions, or decorating weak evidence until the result looks more certain than it is.
  • A skeptical viewer can trace each major claim to a readable source and interpret the visual correctly without narration.
Your work

What to finish

An evidence table and three publication-ready visuals with claims, sources, context, and limitations.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Truncating axes, mixing definitions, or decorating weak evidence until the result looks more certain than it is.

How can I tell I understand it?

A skeptical viewer can trace each major claim to a readable source and interpret the visual correctly without narration.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1Which step is part of “Choose honest evidence and charts”?
2What should you have made by the end of this lesson?
3Which mistake should you watch for in this lesson?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
3
Finish this lesson

Pass the check. We’ll save the progress.

Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

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Optional course overview video · same video as Lesson 1
TEDx TalksHow to Avoid Death by PowerPointYouTube
Optional course overview

How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint

From TEDx Talks. Watch here or open it on YouTube .

Watch for an idea you can use in the practice below. You can pause or skip this optional overview.
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Sources and further reading

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