Why did the student draw a bar chart rather than a line graph?

Answer 1

Your best chance of getting the correct answer is to ask the student who drew the chart.

The type of chart/graph that is best drawn depends upon the data being represented:

If the chart is being used to show how data represents a fraction of a whole, a Pie chart would be used.

If the chart is of discrete data, eg shoe sizes, a bar chart would be used.

If the chart is of continuous data, eg the height of people, a line chart would be used.

A pictogram is a version of the bar chart with the bars split up into icons which represent some kind of unit; eg for shoe sales of different styles a shop could use a shoe icon to represent 5 shoes with parts of a shoe icon representing 1-4 shoes sold.

In business which of the bar chart and line graph is used depends upon what sort of information is required to be shown and to whom*. For factual information about different items a bar chart is often used (eg how much is sales per month), but if a trend is required a line graph can be used (eg how is sales per month changing).

* The "to whom" bit is often the deciding factor - the choice of chart and how it is drawn can be used to great effect to enhance or hide certain aspects of the data.