| Course | MT241 Sport Analytics |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Visualization exercise |
| Length | About 730 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT241 Unit 7
From 2,934 Dots to One Line: A Unit 7 Visualization Exercise on Slot Shots After a System Change
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT241: Sport Analytics
Unit 7 Visualization Exercise
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The club, its shot data and the league band are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
The Question the Chart Must Answer
The coaching staff of our composite club changed its offensive system on November 18, asking defensemen to shoot more from the point and forwards to crowd the net for deflections and rebounds. Two months later, the head coach asked a simple question: are we still getting shots from the slot? The chart for this exercise has to answer that question for someone who will look at it for about ten seconds between meetings.
The Discarded Draft
The first draft was a rink diagram showing all 2,934 unblocked 5-on-5 attempts the club took from October to April, colored by density, with red where shots clustered and blue where they were rare. It was accurate. It was also unreadable at a glance. The red areas sat where they always sit, in front of the net and along the faceoff circles, and the change after November could not be seen because the map combined every month into one picture. A reader would have had to compare two maps side by side, before and after, and judge small changes in color, which people do poorly. In the experiments of Cleveland and McGill (1984), readers ranked differences between two points on a shared axis with far fewer errors than differences in shade, so a map that encodes the change only as a shift in red was bound to hide it.
The Final Chart
The final chart is a single line. The horizontal axis shows months from October to April. The vertical axis shows the share of the club's 5-on-5 unblocked attempts taken from the inner slot, the area in front of the net between the faceoff dots, sometimes called the home-plate area. The line runs 34, 33, 29, 27, 26, 27 and 26 percent across the seven months.
Three elements support the line. A light gray band shows the middle half of the league each month, roughly 31 to 34 percent, so the reader can see that the club moved from inside the normal range to below it. A thin vertical rule at November 18 carries a short label: point-shot system introduced. And the title states the finding in a full sentence: since mid-November, fewer of the club's shots come from the slot.
A chart for a coach should say its finding in the title, so the picture only has to confirm it.
Design Notes
Each design choice was made to serve the coach's question.
One line, not seven bars. Months follow in order, and a line shows direction over time more clearly than bars. Knaflic (2015) recommends lines for continuous time series and warns against adding series a reader does not need.
The axis starts at 20 percent, not zero. Starting at zero would squash an eight-point drop into a small slope. Because the chart shows a share that never approaches zero in practice and the band gives a reference point, a truncated axis does not mislead here. The axis is labeled clearly so no one mistakes the scale.
One dark color for the club. The league band is light gray and the event rule thin, so the club's line is the first thing the eye reaches. Tufte (2001) argues that every mark on a chart should carry information, and the draft's color legend, grid and rink markings were removed for that reason.
A caption carries the details. Below the chart, a short caption names the data source, defines the inner slot by its boundaries, and notes that recorded shot locations vary slightly by arena. The coach does not need to read it; an analyst checking the chart does.
What the Chart Does Not Claim
The chart shows that the club's slot share fell after the system change. It does not prove the system caused the fall, since injuries, opponents and line changes also shifted during those months. The title says the timing, not the cause. A later unit can test the cause; this chart only has to show the coach that the slot shots he asked about have become rarer.
References
Cleveland, W. S., & McGill, R. (1984). Graphical perception: Theory, experimentation, and application to the development of graphical methods. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 79(387), 531-554. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1984.10478080
Knaflic, C. N. (2015). Storytelling with data: A data visualization guide for business professionals. Wiley.
Tufte, E. R. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information (2nd ed.). Graphics Press.
MT241 Unit 7 instructions, in plain terms
Unit 7 asks students to design a chart that answers one question for a named reader, then explain the design. The prompt usually expects a first draft and a final version, which lets the paper show the redesign step by step, along with notes on chart type, axes, color, labels and caption. Start from the reader's question and the time they will spend on the chart; a coach between meetings needs a different chart from an analyst. State what the chart shows and what it does not claim, especially about causes. Three pages is typical, cited in APA 7 with at least three sources on visualization, and the chart's data source and definitions belong in a caption.
Inside the MT241 Unit 7 example
The exercise opens with the coach's question and the ten seconds he will give the chart. The discarded heat map is described and rejected using Cleveland and McGill's finding on position versus shade, with a margin note on why that is not a matter of taste. The final chart section sets out the monthly line, the gray league band, the November rule and the title, and the highlighted line says a coach's chart should state its finding up top. Design notes justify one line over bars with Knaflic, the axis starting at 20 percent, one dark color with Tufte on marks, and a caption for analysts. A closing section separates timing from cause, marked by a third note.
Where the points sit in the MT241 Unit 7 rubric
Visualization exercises earn marks for answering the stated question, for design choices that suit the reader, for honest presentation and for explaining the choices. A final chart that shows the answer at a glance earns most; a technically correct chart that hides it earns less. Graders look for justified choices of chart type, axis, color and labels, ideally tied to research on how people read charts. Honesty matters: a truncated axis needs a reason and a clear label, and the title should not claim a cause the data cannot show. Including the draft and what it taught, a caption with source and definitions, and correct citations complete the rubric.
MT241 Unit 7 help: mistakes that cost points
Students often submit the most impressive chart they can make rather than the clearest. Another frequent problem is a title that describes the chart, such as slot shots by month, instead of stating the finding. Some charts use several colors or series that compete for attention. Others cut the axis without saying so, or claim the system change caused the drop. Keep definitions such as the inner slot in a caption so the chart stays clean. If you have the data but not the design, our writers can help you draft the before and after versions and the notes that justify each choice.
Get an MT241 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Share the data your Unit 7 exercise supplies, or the set you plan to chart, and the decision or question the chart should serve. Add the rubric and any required tool, Excel, Tableau or Python. The first custom visualization, with design notes and its finding in the title, is free and comes back within 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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MT241 Unit 7 questions, answered
How does a sport analytics chart carry a claim?
By being built around one finding a viewer should take away, with every element chosen to make that finding visible. A title that states the claim, a reference such as a league band or a prior season, one highlighted series and muted everything else do most of the work. If a viewer cannot say what the chart shows within a few seconds, it is still a display.
Is it acceptable to start a y-axis above zero?
For line charts showing change in a rate, usually yes, provided the axis is labeled clearly and the choice is explained. Bar charts differ, because bar length encodes the value and a truncated axis exaggerates differences. The example starts at 20 percent and says why in its notes, since a zero baseline would flatten the eight-point drop it exists to show.
What is the inner slot, or home-plate area?
The area directly in front of the net, commonly drawn from the goal posts out to the faceoff dots and up toward the tops of the circles, shaped roughly like a baseball home plate. Shots from there score at far higher rates than shots from the points or the boards, which is why analysts track the share of a team's attempts taken from it.
Where can I find a free MT241 Unit 7 sample paper?
You can read the complete MT241 Unit 7 visualization exercise on this page. It discards a heat map of 2,934 shots, builds one monthly slot-share line with a league band and explains each design choice.
Why does the MT241 Unit 7 sample start the axis at 20 percent?
Starting at zero would flatten an eight-point drop into a small slope. Because a slot share never nears zero and the league band gives a reference, the cut axis is labeled clearly and does not mislead.