ABSTRACT
Correspondence analysis is a method of data analysis for representing tabular data graphically. Correspondence analysis is a generalization of a simple graphical concept with which we are all familiar, namely the scatterplot. The scatterplot is the representation of data as a set of points with respect to two perpendicular coordinate axes: the horizontal axis often referred to as the x-axis and the vertical one as the y-axis. As a gentle introduction to the subject of correspondence analysis, it is convenient to reflect for a short time on our perception of scatterplots and how we interpret them in relation to the data they represent graphically. Particular emphasis will be placed on how we interpret distances between points in a scatterplot and when scatterplots can be seen as a spatial map of the data.
