Chapter 3 narrative

[kweav]

The changes in this PR focus on the narrative within Chapter 3. Chapter 5 (field specific plots) are outlined and a few of the specific ones I covered in the talk are added using that material.

Chapter 3 aims to answer the question "Which visualization should I use?" and makes the argument that the answer to that is dependent upon the type and amount of data and the visualization goal. Because of this, the chapter begins by discussing types of data. From there, it discusses ways to encode or display data and then briefly coordinate systems as well as broad goals of data visualization. It transitions to providing some standard graph types and for each providing the primary type of data, how much there is, how it's primarily encoded, and the goal of that visualization typically (all the info the chapter has covered). It focuses on ranking and distribution plots (violin plots, boxplot with jitter, ridgeline plots, raincloud plots) and then group composition plots (stacked bar charts, heatmaps, and sankey diagrams). For each of those plots a description, when to use, strengths, weaknesses, and alternatives are provided. Still need to add example plots as mentioned in Issue #27 . A brief call out to chapter 5 and field standard plots are included then galleries are mentioned and then a summary.

Within chapter 5 I've included info for the caterpillar plot and waterfall plot, though they could probably use a single sentence each at the beginning about how the field uses them/why. I've included spots for maybe the repeated measures plot, definitely the kaplan meier curve, definitely the volcano plot, maybe an enrichment plot, definitely an MA diagram, probably a PCA plot, maybe a circos plot, and probably a biomedical knowledge graph.

Edit: other files that have been edited include the PR workflow file because I want checks to run for all PRs no matter their base branch, and I've updated the dictionary given the spell check originally done in this branch

[github-actions]

OTTR Check Results

Summary

• Spelling check: ❌ FAILED (60 errors found, threshold: 0)
• URL check: ✅ PASSED (0 errors found, threshold: 0)

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Last Updated: 2026-01-05-15:45:45

[kweav]

Overall readability score: 51.61 (🔴 -6.25)

File	Readability
6-References.md	0 (🟢 +0)
5-Wrapping-up.md	0 (-)
4-High-quality-and-inclusive-data-visualizations.md	0 (-)
3-Which-visualization-should-I-use.md	0 (-)
2-What-is-Data-Visualization.md	0 (-)
index.md	25.93 (🔴 -43.49)
About.md	43.14 (🟢 +0)
05_wrapping_up.md	86.75 (-)
04_how_to_improve_viz.md	86.75 (-)
03_background_data_graph_info.md	82.47 (-)
02_what_why_intro.md	86.75 (-)
01-intro.md	9.43 (🔴 -87.25)
index.md	25.93 (🔴 -43.49)
05_wrapping_up.md	86.75 (-)
04_how_to_improve_viz.md	86.75 (-)
03_background_data_graph_info.md	82.47 (-)
02_what_why_intro.md	86.75 (-)
01-intro.md	9.43 (🔴 -87.25)

View detailed metrics

🟢 - Shows an increase in readability
🔴 - Shows a decrease in readability

File	Readability	FRE	GF	ARI	CLI	DCRS
6-References.md	0	0	19	22	19	11
	🟢 +0	🟢 +0	🟢 +0	🟢 +0	🟢 +0	🟢 +0
5-Wrapping-up.md	0	0	19	22	19	11
	-	-	-	-	-	-
4-High-quality-and-inclusive-data-visualizations.md	0	0	19	22	19	11
	-	-	-	-	-	-
3-Which-visualization-should-I-use.md	0	0	19	22	19	11
	-	-	-	-	-	-
2-What-is-Data-Visualization.md	0	0	19	22	19	11
	-	-	-	-	-	-
index.md	25.93	24.48	15.7	17.1	16.3	9.35
	🔴 -43.49	🔴 -39.22	🔴 -6.09	🔴 -6.8	🔴 -6.09	🔴 -2.52
About.md	43.14	42.17	10.52	15.6	16.98	8.05
	🟢 +0	🟢 +0	🟢 +0	🟢 +0	🟢 +0	🟢 +0
05_wrapping_up.md	86.75	75.88	6	6	6	7.78
	-	-	-	-	-	-
04_how_to_improve_viz.md	86.75	75.88	6	6	6	7.78
	-	-	-	-	-	-
03_background_data_graph_info.md	82.47	39.7	6	6.3	7.54	6.44
	-	-	-	-	-	-
02_what_why_intro.md	86.75	75.88	6	6	6	7.78
	-	-	-	-	-	-
01-intro.md	9.43	3.9	18.47	19.6	17.64	10.23
	🔴 -87.25	🔴 -80.44	🔴 -12.47	🔴 -13.1	🔴 -11.64	🔴 -5.33
index.md	25.93	24.48	15.7	17.1	16.3	9.35
	🔴 -43.49	🔴 -39.22	🔴 -6.09	🔴 -6.8	🔴 -6.09	🔴 -2.52
05_wrapping_up.md	86.75	75.88	6	6	6	7.78
	-	-	-	-	-	-
04_how_to_improve_viz.md	86.75	75.88	6	6	6	7.78
	-	-	-	-	-	-
03_background_data_graph_info.md	82.47	39.7	6	6.3	7.54	6.44
	-	-	-	-	-	-
02_what_why_intro.md	86.75	75.88	6	6	6	7.78
	-	-	-	-	-	-
01-intro.md	9.43	3.9	18.47	19.6	17.64	10.23
	🔴 -87.25	🔴 -80.44	🔴 -12.47	🔴 -13.1	🔴 -11.64	🔴 -5.33

Averages:

	Readability	FRE	GF	ARI	CLI	DCRS
Average	51.61	44.89	11.56	13.11	12.31	8.17
	🔴 -6.25	🔴 -8.63	🔴 -0.65	🔴 -0.44	🔴 -0.35	🔴 -0.8

View metric targets

Metric	Range	Ideal score
Flesch Reading Ease	100 (very easy read) to 0 (extremely difficult read)	60
Gunning Fog	6 (very easy read) to 17 (extremely difficult read)	8 or less
Auto. Read. Index	6 (very easy read) to 14 (extremely difficult read)	8 or less
Coleman Liau Index	6 (very easy read) to 17 (extremely difficult read)	8 or less
Dale-Chall Readability	4.9 (very easy read) to 9.9 (extremely difficult read)	6.9 or less

[github-actions]

Re-rendered previews from the latest commit:

• 👀 Quick preview of course website here *
• 🔬 Comprehensive download of the course website here
• Download the .docx file

* note not all html features will be properly displayed in the "quick preview" but it will give you a rough idea.

Updated at 2025-12-23 with changes from the latest commit c0f14b9

[kweav]

Closing this because of the weird behavior of tracking files it shouldn't and the spell check not updating. I've recreated it with a fresh branch