Graphing Multivariate Categorical Data with R

Materials for August 10 & August 17 sessions: Graphing Multivariate Categorical Data

Joyce Robbins and Ludmila Janda

August 10, 2021: Mosaic Plots

How to prepare

1:00 – 1:30 Graphing multivariate categorical data

• Challenges faced
• Choosing a graph form based on data type
• How to read mosaic plots

1:30 – 2:00 Creating mosaic plots in R

• Best practices for constructing a mosaic plot
• Creating a mosaic plot with the vcd package

2:00 – 2:20 Mosaic plot exercise

• Participants will work in breakout rooms creating mosaic plots of demographic information on current House and Senate members

2:20 – 2:30 Exercise solutions

August 17, 2021: Alluvial Diagrams

How to prepare

1:00 – 1:20. What are alluvial diagrams?

• When to use alluvial diagrams
• Terminology
• Examples: the good, bad, and ugly

1:20 – 1:45 Creating alluvial diagrams in R

• Getting data in the correct format
• Building an alluvial diagram using ggalluvial functions
• Using theme elements to beautify plot

1:45 – 2:05 Alluvial diagram exercise

• Participants will work in breakout rooms creating alluvial diagrams using U.S. natality data from the CDC.

2:05 – 2:15 Exercise solutions

2:15 – 2:30 Wrap up: what chart should I use?

• Discussion of which chart type works best for different datasets