R is arguably the most powerful computing environment for statistical computing and graphics, but the learning curve can be steep at first. This short course aims to give participants a high-level overview of graphics in R and sufficient details in the form of examples to get a jump start and use R graphics productively in their work.
It is assumed that participants have at least a basic understanding of R and are comfortable using R scripts in the R console or, preferably the RStudio interactive development environment.
The first session presents an overview of the roles of graphics in data analysis, and the main R graphics systems (base graphics; grid graphics; ggplot2). It gives a high level view of the kinds of graphics that can be produced with R, and some of the R Studio and R package tools to integrate data analysis, graphics, and reporting within a convient workflow.
Session 2 presents the traditional object-oriented design of statistical analysis and graphing in R and illustrates how these can be enhanced or tweaked for different presentation goals.
The third and fourth sessions illustrate more powerful forms of graphics in R, produced, respectively with grid/lattice graphics and with ggplot2.