dot chart
frequency
Author

Ana Luisa Bodevan

Published

November 18, 2025

This week challenge dataset in on Sherlock. Check the TidyTuesday GitHub repo for the data.

1. SETUP

1.1 Load libraries and data

Code 
library(pacman)
pacman :: p_load(tidytuesdayR, tidyverse, dplyr, janitor, ggtext, showtext, scales, glue, marquee)

tuesdata <- tidytuesdayR::tt_load('2025-11-18')

2. DATA WRANGLING

2.1 Manually get novels and their release years

There are four canonical Sherlock Holmes novels: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Fours, The Hound of Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear

Code 
holmes <- tuesdata$holmes

novels <- 
  tribble(
    ~book,~year,
    "A Study In Scarlet",1887,
    "The Sign of the Four",1890,
    "The Hound of the Baskervilles",1901,
    "The Valley Of Fear",1914
  )

2.2 Find “My Dear Watson”

Code 
lines <- 
  holmes |> 
  filter(book %in% novels$book) |> 
  left_join(novels) |> 
  drop_na(text) |> 
  arrange(year) |> 
  mutate(watson = str_detect(text, "[Mm]y dear Watson"))

watson_counts <- 
  lines |> 
  group_by(book, year) |> 
  summarize(count = sum(watson), .groups = "drop") |> 
  arrange(year)
Code 
ggplot(watson_counts, aes(x = reorder(book, year), y = count)) +
  geom_col() +
  geom_text(aes(label = count), vjust = -0.5, size = 5, fontface = "bold") +
  labs(
    title = "Frequency of 'My Dear Watson' in Canonical Sherlock Holmes Novels",
    x = NULL,
    y = "Number of Occurrences"
  ) +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(
    axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 45, hjust = 1, size = 11),
    plot.title = element_text(face = "bold", size = 14)
  )

3. PLOT

3.1 Fonts and colors

Code 
font_add_google("EB Garamond", "garamond")
font_add_google("Lato", "lato")
showtext_auto()

3.2 Plot

Code 
# Create dot plot
ggplot(watson_counts, aes(x = count, y = reorder(book, -year))) +
  # Segment from y-axis to point
  geom_segment(aes(x = 0, xend = count, y = book, yend = book),
               color = "#8B4513", linewidth = 1.2, alpha = 0.6) +

  # Dots
  geom_point(size = 10, color = "#8B4513", alpha = 0.9) +
  geom_point(size = 7, color = "#D2691E", alpha = 0.8) +

  # Count labels inside dots
  geom_text(aes(label = count), color = "white", size = 4.5, 
            fontface = "bold", family = "lato") +

  # Year labels after book titles
  geom_text(aes(label = paste0("(", year, ")"), x = -0.5),
            hjust = 1, size = 3.5, color = "#6D4C41", 
            family = "lato", fontface = "italic") +

  # Styling
  scale_x_continuous(breaks = seq(0, 10, 2),
                     limits = c(-2, 11),
                     expand = c(0, 0)) +

  labs(
    title = "**My Dear Watson...**",
    subtitle = "The famous catchphrase was rarely featured in canonical novels",
    caption = "#TidyTuesday {sherlock}\nGraphic: Ana Bodevan",
    x = NULL,
    y = NULL
  ) +

  theme_void(base_family = "garamond") +
  theme(
    plot.title = element_marquee(
      family = "garamond",
      size = 32,
      color = "#3E2723",
      margin = margin(b = 5)
    ),
    plot.subtitle = element_text(
      size = 18,
      family = "garamond",
      color = "#6D4C41",
      margin = margin(b = 20, t=2)
    ),
    plot.caption = element_text(size = 10, family = "lato", color = "#6D4C41"),

    plot.background = element_rect(fill = "#FFF8E1", color = NA),
    panel.background = element_rect(fill = "#FFF8E1", color = NA),
    panel.grid.major.y = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.minor = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.major.x = element_line(color = "#E8DCC8", linewidth = 0.4, linetype = "dotted"),

    axis.text.y = element_text(size = 14, color = "#3E2723", 
                               hjust = 0, face = "italic"),
    axis.text.x = element_blank(),
    axis.ticks = element_blank(),
    plot.margin = margin(20, 20, 20, 20)
  )