Graphing and Presenting Likert Items

[rjbinney]

I have conducted a survey with a collection of items using a 5-point Likert scale (1="Strongly Disagree", 5="Strongly Agree").

Each question has two parts:
- What is your perception of the current state of affairs?
- How important is this concept?

I'm not super-certain on the best way to present this data. I was thinking a column chart showing, side-by-side, the frequency of each answer.

Ought I to include mode and median for each? Or is that overkill?

What are other effective ways to show this type of information? My statistics education ended at "calculation" and not "presentation" - so any would-be Tuftes out there, I'm open!

I'm also thinking about calculating some kind of ratio - dividing average importance by average current state - to show disparities between the two. How could I add a piece of data like that easily and effectively to this type of chart?


Thanks so much to anyone with ideas or suggestions.




Following is sample data and the sample chart I created.

RAW DATA:
ID, Q1 (Current State), Q1 (How Important Is This)
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="223"> <colgroup><col style="mso-width-source:userset;mso-width-alt:3474;width:71pt" width="95"><col style="width:48pt" span="2" width="64"> </colgroup><tbody><tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt;width:71pt" height="17" width="95">163</td> <td style="width:48pt" align="right" width="64">2</td> <td style="width:48pt" align="right" width="64">5</td> </tr> <tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt" height="17">258</td> <td align="right">2</td> <td align="right">4</td> </tr> <tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt" height="17">295</td> <td align="right">2</td> <td align="right">5</td> </tr> <tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt" height="17">305</td> <td align="right">2</td> <td align="right">5</td> </tr> <tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt" height="17">533</td> <td align="right">2</td> <td align="right">5</td> </tr> <tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt" height="17">546</td> <td align="right">2</td> <td align="right">5</td> </tr> <tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt" height="17">648</td> <td align="right">2</td> <td align="right">5</td> </tr> <tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt" height="17">650</td> <td align="right">3</td> <td align="right">2</td> </tr> <tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt" height="17">807</td> <td align="right">3</td> <td align="right">4</td> </tr> <tr style="height:12.75pt" height="17"> <td style="height:12.75pt" height="17">985</td> <td align="right">2</td> <td align="right">5</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>


I ADDED THE FOLLOWING:
Mode, =MODE(Column B), =MODE(Column C)
Median, =MEDIAN(Column B), =MEDIAN(Column C)
Mean, =AVERAGE(Column B), =AVERAGE(Column C)
Variability, =STDEV(Column B), =STDEV(Column C)
Disparity Ratio, =(AVERAGE(Column C))/(AVERAGE(Column B),
1, =COUNTIF (Column B, 1), =COUNTIF (Column C, 1)
2, =COUNTIF (Column B, 2), =COUNTIF (Column C, 2)
3, =COUNTIF (Column B, 3), =COUNTIF (Column C, 3)
4, =COUNTIF (Column B, 4), =COUNTIF (Column C, 4)
5, =COUNTIF (Column B, 5), =COUNTIF (Column C, 5)


THEN I GRAPHED
The last five rows - so kind of a poor-man's histogram, I guess.