Smoothness

When drawing a stem and leaf plot, the aim is for a smooth shape to the stem and leaf plot, and this is usually achieved by between 10 and 20 rows of leaves.

Drawing by hand

When data are analysed on a computer, a stacked dot plot usually describes a distribution of values more clearly than a stem and leaf plot.

However stem and leaf plots are easy to draw by hand:

To simplify drawing, values are truncated to give their stems and leaf digits, not rounded. For example, 7.98 and 7.90 would both be displayed as leaf '9' on the stem '7'.