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Dodgy Diagram Dossier in an AQA Endorsed Textbook!
30th September 2012
We have been enjoying a lively dialogue on Twitter in recent days about a spate of poorly drafted and frankly shoddy diagrams in the AQA-endorsed A2 textbook from the publishers Nelson Thornes. Have you purchased this either as a student or as a teacher for your department? How did the following diagrams manage to make it through the editing process? Can your students spot the mistakes / errors / inaccuracies? If you have worked your way through a sizeable chunk of theory of the firm, this might make for a good exercise along the lines of our "Beat the Teacher" activities!
Exhibit 1: Focus on the diagram
Exhibit 2: Revenues?
Exhibit 3: Interesting shape to the short run average total costs here!
Exhibit 4: It gets better!
Exhibit 5: Long run average variable cost? Price = + 25% ??
Exhibit 6: ATC curvetakes some believing!
Exhibit 7: Price discrimination - what is wrong about the combined diagram on the right?
The offending publication
BTW Tutor2u is mentioned in the acknowledgements at the start of the A2 book (and for the AS version too) - it is a long story and we cannot go into the reasons here. Safe to say that we did not want to be mentioned when the book was first issued.
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.