Welcome back to our comic series that explores a range of data literacy concepts. We follow Becky, who describes herself as a bit data-phobic, as she navigates tricky situations at her new job. She’ll learn to create effective charts, grasp statistical concepts, and confidently clean data for analysis with the help of her faithful desk plant Fern.

Today, Becky discovers why she needs a plan for how she’ll use her data. Just collecting the data isn’t enough!

Catch up on past comic strips: Pie Charts, Bias in Research, Base Rate Fallacy, Percent Change and Percentage Points, When Small Changes Make a Big Difference

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Dive deeper into this topic with Data Literacy Fundamentals by Ben Jones (e-book PDF or paperback)

If you know anyone who would enjoy following Becky’s journey of becoming a confident data communicator, then please feel free to share this comic series!

Alli Torban is a contributor to Data Literacy LLC. She’s an Information Design Consultant based in Washington, D.C., and hosts the podcast Data Viz Today. Alli specializes in designing engaging information graphics for researchers to help get their work understood by a wider audience. She enjoys creating whimsical patterns and spending time with her husband and two daughters.