Module 6: Data Classification (Cartographic Skills)

This week's lab was pretty interesting and was fairly easy to work through. In this lab, we were to use four different data classifications in four different maps (though all included within one full map) for African-American population distributions in Escambia County, FL.

The primary new thing I learned this week was how to change the data classification, which is done simply under the Symbology tab for a given layer's properties. This had to be done four different times, using Natural Break, Equal Interval, Quantile, and Standard Deviation classification for each of the four layers. Once this was one, it was just a matter of adding all of the essential map elements to the page. Any reader of this work should be able to tell the differences between each classification and use it to help choose which one they may need for any given data.