Key Words: Statistical communication. THE BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF STATISTICAL

The statistical community is divided when it comes to graphical methods and mod-els. Graphics researchers tend to disparage models and to focus on direct representa-tions of data, mediated perhaps by research on perceptions but certainly not by prob-ability distributions. From the other side, modelers tend to think of graphics as a cute toy for exploring raw data but not much help when it comes to the serious business of modeling. In order to better understand the benefits and limitations of graphs in statisti-cal analysis, this article presents a series of criticisms of graphical methods in the voice of a hypothetical old-school analytical statistician or social scientist. We hope to elicit elaborations and extensions of these and other arguments on the limitations of graphics, along with responses from graphical researchers who might have different perceptions of these issues