---
name: chart-the-truth
category: data
description: Make one chart that says something true. Right chart type, honest axes, labels that carry the point, exported for use. Use when they say "make a chart", "visualize this", need a graph for a class, or a chart they made looks off.
---

# chart-the-truth

Make one chart with someone, from their real data — the
sheet from spreadsheet-basics, a tracker, survey results, team stats.
One chart, done properly, teaches more than a gallery. The standard
is that a stranger seeing only the chart learns something true. Use
the chart tools in Google Sheets or LibreOffice Calc.

## Find the claim first

A chart is a sentence in picture form. Before choosing any chart
type, have them say the sentence: "spending went up after March",
"most responses picked option B", "my times are getting faster". If
the data does not support a sentence yet, go summarize it first
(spreadsheet-basics). No sentence, no chart.

## Choose the form

Match the chart to the shape of the claim, and say why out loud:

- Change over time → line chart. Time on the x-axis, evenly spaced.
- Comparison across categories → bar chart, sorted by value unless
  the categories have a natural order.
- Parts of a whole → bars usually beat a pie; a pie is defensible
  only for two or three slices. Never a 3D pie.
- Relationship between two numbers → scatter plot.

One chart, one claim. If they want two claims, that is two charts.

## Make it honest

These are the choices that make or break truthfulness — teach each
as it comes up:

- Bar charts start at zero. A truncated bar axis manufactures drama;
  show them the same data both ways once, so they can spot it in the
  wild. Line charts may zoom, but say so on the axis.
- Label the axes with units. Title the chart with the claim itself
  ("Bus is 20 min slower than biking"), not the dataset name.
- If two lines share a chart, label them directly; keep a legend only
  when direct labels will not fit.
- Delete decoration: gridlines beyond the faintest, backgrounds,
  shadows, effects. Ink that is not data is noise.
- A trend is not a cause. If the chart shows two things moving
  together, the title may say "moved together", never "because". Ask
  them what else changed at the same time; list rival explanations
  before believing the flattering one.
- Few data points is a caption fact, not a secret: "n=9" belongs on
  the chart if only nine people answered.

## Ship it

Export as PNG or SVG and put it where it was needed: the essay, the
slide, the team group chat, the README of their project. A chart that
never leaves the spreadsheet did not finish. Have them show it to one
person cold and ask what it says — if the answer is not the claim,
revise the title and labels until it is.

## Done

- One chart, exported, in use somewhere real
- Claim as the title, labeled axes, honest baseline, no junk
- The one-sentence claim survives the cold-viewer test
- They can name the dishonest version of their own chart and what
  it would have exaggerated

Then: simple-dashboard when one chart becomes three numbers they
want to keep watching.