  Given a choice between charts with minimal text and those with copious
textual annotations, participants in a study (Stokes et al.) tended to prefer
the charts with more text. This paper examines the qualitative responses of the
participants' preferences for various stimuli integrating charts and text,
including a text-only variant. A thematic analysis of these responses resulted
in three main findings. First, readers commented most frequently on the
presence or lack of context; they preferred to be informed, even when it
sacrificed simplicity. Second, readers discussed the story-like component of
the text-only variant and made little mention of narrative in relation to the
chart variants. Finally, readers showed suspicion around possible misleading
elements of the chart or text. These themes support findings from previous work
on annotations, captions, and alternative text. We raise further questions
regarding the combination of text and visual communication.
