Assignment 1: Map Analysis

Unit 1: Map Analysis Essay The map that I chose was a map about the crimes committed in each state in the US in

2004. It uses color to show how many crimes were committed. I found my map online. The maps projection shows the US with the bottom part of Canada and the top part of Mexico. It is slightly enlarged because the US is what the cartographer’s main focus is. It shows every state in the mainland US (Which Excludes Hawaii & Alaska). This is a choropleth map. The colors the cartographer used varied from a very light pink to a very dark red. The darker the color, the more crimes committed in that area. There are no symbols on this map. There is a legend under the map that shows how the colors are to be interpreted on the map. The very

The overall layout of the map was good and was easy to understand to someone who is familiar with the US map. This map is very useful to someone because if an individual was to move to the US in 2004, they could see how many crimes there were in that state. They would be able to find a state with less crimes, if they wish to live somewhere where they are not at a high risk of danger. That is an advantage of this maps usefulness. One limitation of this map is that there are no names on the states. It is not necessary to have states labeled, but on this particular map, you would need them. How would you know

Bost 2 which state is which if you weren 't too familiar with the map? How would the reader be able to tell that the most crimes were committed in the state of California, if you aren’t very familiar with it? Or that West Virginia had less crimes than all the states around it? You wouldn’t be able to tell. Another limitation of this map is that it doesn’t tell you what kind of crime that was committed. It doesn 't tell you if it was extremely violent or not. It would be important to know because there is a difference between people losing their valuables versus people losing