Mapping It Out: Expository Cartography for the Humanities and Social Sciences (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) 1st edition by Monmonier, Mark (1993) Paperback

by Mark Monmonier

The goal of this book is to encourage scholars to use maps where maps are needed. Although written language allows authors to announce goals, discuss sources, explain research strategies, narrate events, and summarize arguments, prose has sequential, linear structure that can be painfully insufficient for discussing places, regions, and spatial relationships.

Genres: Geography

Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Mark Stephen Monmonier is an American author and a Distinguished Professor of Geography at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.

He specializes in toponymy, geography, and geographic information systems. His popular written works show a combination of serious study and a sense of humor. His most famous work is How To Lie With Maps (1991), in which he challenges the common belief that maps inherently show an unbiased truth.

Reviews

[Jessica DeWitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Mapping It Out, Mark Monmonier provides the Humanities and Social Sciences scholar with easy-to-understand tips and explanations as to how to use maps to their fullest potential both to explicate information and ask and answer research questions. Although published in 1993, most of Monmonier's information and advice is still applicable to current mapping technology, mainly because it is a guide to designing maps rather than a mapping program manual. Throughout the book, Monmonier provides helpful maps, which help to directly illustrate the points that he is making within the text. He begins by discussing the importance of wordage on a map, too little or too much wording can ruin a map's effectiveness. One of the most helpful chapters is "Chapter 2: Scale, Perspective, and Generalization." As a new mapping scholar I have found myself married to accuracy. I am afraid to generalize or exaggerate geographic features because I do not want my maps to be determined to be inaccurate or poorly made by others. Reading this chapter made me feel easier about taking advantage of authorship privilege. Monmonier shows how it is necessary at times to distort or modify map and geographic features in order to increase map usability. Anyone new to mapping should definitely read Chapter 2. Monmonier also discusses in depth the importance of map symbolization in order to provide a map with the highest possible functionality. In "Chapter 4: Map Goals, Map Titles, and Creative Labeling," he discusses how "the words on a map provide a needed link between the cartographic symbols and the natural language of authors and readers." (93) A map must have a specific goal or message in mind around which the cartographer must work in order to ensure that the map is functional. In "Chapter 5: Statistical Maps, Data Scaling, and Data Classification," he shows how to effectively symbolize statistical data on a map. This chapter introduced quite a few new techniques that I had not come across before. In Chapter's 7 and 8, Monmonier explains how to map movement and change and how to create relational maps, two skills that are particularly helpful for historians hoping to integrate maps into their historical analysis. Overall, Mapping It Out is a good primer for anyone preparing to begin a mapping project for the first time or anyone wishing to brush up on basic map design strategies.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both reaffirming and informative to read a seminal work from 1993 and be struck at how its subject matter holds true to today. Required reading for those doing data-driven visual narratives today. Beautifully articulated and logically structured, Monmonier provides graphicacy training that the widespread use of technological crutches hides us from.
Particularly struck by his appendix considering drawing media and determine when pen and ink is more appropriate than electronic means - would we even ask the question today?