What expectations should professionals and the public place on visuals to communicate the uncertainties of complex phenomena? This article demonstrates how charts during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic articulated visual arguments yet also required extended communicative support upon their delivery. The author examines one well-circulated chart comparing COVID-19 case trends per country and highlights its rhetoric by contrasting its design decisions with those of other charts and reports created as the pandemic initially unfolded. To help nonexpert audiences, the author suggests that professional communicators and designers incorporate more contextual information about the data and notable design choices.

中文翻译：

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交付事实：关于可视化模型的修辞是什么？

专业人士和公众对视觉传达复杂现象的不确定性应该抱有什么样的期望？本文展示了 COVID-19 大流行最初几个月的图表如何阐明视觉论点，但在交付时还需要扩展的交流支持。作者检查了一张流通良好的图表，比较了每个国家/地区的 COVID-19 病例趋势，并通过将其设计决策与大流行最初展开时创建的其他图表和报告的设计决策进行对比来突出其言辞。为了帮助非专业观众，作者建议专业的传播者和设计师结合更多关于数据和值得注意的设计选择的上下文信息。