is about graph minimum observed value maximum observed value data distribution first quartile third quartile box and whisker plot Orlaith Burke A box and whisker plot is appropriate to represent the characteristics oc a distribution. Alejandra Gonzalez-Beltran Philippe Rocca-Serra Tukey box and whisker plot Tukey, J. W. "Box-and-Whisker Plots." §2C in Exploratory Data Analysis. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, pp. 39-43, 1977. a box plot is a graph which plots datasets relying on their quartiles and the interquartile range to create the box and the whiskers. box plot boxplot boxplot(x, ...) http://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/graphics/html/boxplot.html center value ready for release