Do I need to include a legend on a scatter graph?
a title at the top which summarizes what the graph is showing; # the independent variable on the x-axis (horizontal axis) and the dependent variable on the y-axis (vertical axis). The independent variable is the one that you manipulate, and the dependent variable is the one that you observe. For example, you might manipulate salt content in the diet and observe the effect this has on blood pressure. Sometimes you don’t really manipulate either variable, you observe them both. In that case, if you are testing the hypothesis that changes in one variable cause changes in the other, put the variable that you think causes the changes on the x-axis. For example, you might plot “height, in cm” on the x-axis and “number of head-bumps per week” on the y-axis if you are investigating whether being tall causes people to bump their heads more often. Finally, there are times when there is no cause-and-effect relationship, in which case you can plot either variable on the x-axis; an example would be