We have developed the first year undergraduate physics labs to incorporate both open and guided inquiry in a flexible approach. By doing this we have shown that there have been benefits in both the affective and the cognitive domain for our students. One of the main aims for the labs was to develop necessary transferable scientific skills. Developing graphing skills was an important part of the work that we did in the labs. Through our work we have developed assessments to test students’ general graphing literacy and developed curriculum to tackle their difficulties. The difficulties addressed are with both qualitative and quantitative graphs.