GIS POP QUIZ 1

Hello all!

I am about to take a quiz on this blog, so if you are also taking this quiz with me, DON'T PEAK!!! If you are following along at home, feel free to steal my answers and learn more about GIS! FTR, these answers may not be the most correct. Await my instructor's comment on the grade before taking this for absolute truth...

Question 1: What are the skills necessary to be a good cartographer?

The man on the moon does not exist! Trust me, or ask a cartographer. At least a good cartographer would tell you that he isn't real. That is one skill that he must have, knowing the difference between fact and fiction. But, more importantly, he would need to know how to make a good map. See my answer below to find out what all that entails. Furthermore, a good cartographer would be able to take in a task (say, someone asks him to make a map of Mercer University's Macon campus, highlighting the current parking areas) and put out a map that does just that. Of course, he would need to gain more insight into what the customer would want, so he would have to be able to communicate with him/her very effectively. Beyond that, the cartographer would need to be able to know how to gain information and datasets that detail the area to be mapped. These are but a few of the general skills that a cartographer would need to be successful.


Question 2: Distinguish between the elements that result in a "good map" and a "bad map."

A good map is going to have many elements that accomplish one purpose: making the map as easy to read and informative as possible. A scale and legend are must haves; they give the map reader much information about how to interpret the map. Also, easy-to-read color schemes are definitely needed. If the colors are offputting, then the reader will not want to look at the map and will not be as comfortable getting the information that he/she needs. When filling out a map with detail, simpler is better. Too much information is clutter at best, unreadable at worst.

A bad map is much easier to define. It is simply a map that isn't good. A bad map is missing one or more parts that make a good map, or is difficult to read and/or simply uninformative.


Well, that's it for my quiz today. I hope you have learned something about maps and map making, or at the very least, Dr. Rood has found it in his heart to give me an A.

Until next time,
Keep reading and playing along!