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Thinking in Diagrams

Chapter 1: What Is a Diagram For?

Drafted for Aryeh's edit.

For chapter 1: What Is a Diagram For?

Timing

Section titled “Timing”
  • Reading the chapter: about 12 minutes, its 1,750 words of prose at 150 words a minute. Not counted in those minutes: 2 figures, 1 pair, 3 understanding checks, the reading exercise and the exercises.
  • A session: 45 minutes, the exercises set for it. (estimate)
  • Afterwards: 35 minutes, the exercises set for then. (estimate)

Common misreadings

Section titled “Common misreadings”
  • Every solid line read as more supported, in a diagram with no dashed effect. A solid effect is more supported only beside a dashed one; with none dashed, the diagram carries no coding. In the understanding check about a theatre company’s report, and in the reading’s third question, the choice that takes every effect for more supported is this misreading.
  • A variable counted taken for an effect supported. A count supports an effect when it shows the second variable changing alongside the first. In the understanding check about streetlights, the police’s count of burglaries on her road this year counts one variable once.
  • Counts and beliefs drawn alike, no line between them. The bad diagram, a youth club’s funding bid, has all six effects solid: three rest on counts, three on the club’s beliefs, and a reader can’t tell which is which.
  • A dashed line read as a negative effect, a weak one or a false one. A dash means only that its author judges the effect less supported. In the reading’s second question, the source’s dotted line marked a negative influence, and a weaker effect than a solid line is a wrong choice; the chapter’s Common misreading names false, or minor.
  • A solid effect read as proven, or as counted. Solid is the author’s judgment that an effect is more supported as a causal mechanism, and where the line falls is a decision; a count is one kind of support. In the understanding check about a florist, her till leaves open whether the roadworks changed her customers or only came before the fall.

Exercises to set

Section titled “Exercises to set”

The session runs from a log with one dashed effect to a report’s evidence sorted, the published map between; a circle closed by a model and the case come afterwards.

For a session

Afterwards

Sources

Section titled “Sources”