The Budget in Wordle

There’s plenty of coverage of the recent budget online. As usual, a good place to start any research you do is at the BBC website.

I’m particularly interested in the graphic above. The BBC page designer has produced it using the web tool Wordle. What’s particularly good about this tool is the way in which complex, lengthy pieces of text can be rapidly summarised in a visual way that reflects the frequency with which words are used. It’s possible to get a feel for the text with a glance. I would have expected to see the word borrowing in giant letters, swamping the picture!

I used Wordle with my AS OCR F292 students who are working on the Hoiles Crisps case study and came up with this:

I’m particularly pleased by the way in which the word ‘however’ has achieved prominence. It’s a key word to use in most ‘A’ level answers that require an evaluative component.