Qualitative & Quantitative Information: Plate Boundaries

Science texts are often enhanced by visual information such as graphs, charts and diagrams. Words convey what we call qualitative information – they describe a topic or the scientific findings about the topic. Numbers give the reader important quantitative information to prove what the qualitative information is saying. Both types of information can be illustrated using visual representations that make it easier to fully understand the information.

To be an effective reader in science, you must be able to read for, understand and integrate quantitative, qualitative and visual information. This means reading for and recording important details in the text and then viewing the visual representation for visual details that will give you a deeper or clearer understanding of what you have read.

Module Objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Read a scientific text for quantitative and qualitative information.
• Analyze a visual representation of information for important details.
• Combine information from a text and a visual representation to form a full understanding of a topic.