Authoring a PhD Thesis How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Dissertation by Patrick Dunleavy

HANDLING ATTENTION POINTS◆ 175

Equity release

from mortgage

7%

Other

5%

Loans

16% Credit card

45%

Bank overdraft

27%

(c) Pie chart

The main sources of finance for major consumer
purchases in Europe, 2001 (hypothetical)

Use a pie chart whenever:

• you want to show the shares of something or
  percentages.

Don’t use a pie chart if:

• data is over-time or more complex.

Points to watch:

• put the pie slices into a descending numerical
  progression (unless data is in categories with a fixed
  order or is chronological);


• start with the largest pie slice at the top, and arrange
  slices in declining order going clockwise;


• label each slice and show the percentage share as a
  number inside or outside it.