diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6e54070..6dc1733 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,2 +1,19 @@
 # benchmark-openMP
 some benchamarks with openMP in C
+
+## compile
+make to compile
+
+##usage 
+then 
+```bash
+./collect_data.sh <num> <outdata.txt> 
+```
+to run program with 1 to num threads
+you can specify reps per iteration and iterations in collect\_data.sh
+
+run 
+```bash
+./make_plots.py <indata.txt> <outplot.png>
+```
+to make plot
diff --git a/makeplots.py b/makeplots.py
index 40bb517..3935b40 100755
--- a/makeplots.py
+++ b/makeplots.py
@@ -2,13 +2,22 @@
 
 import matplotlib.pylab as plt
 import csv
+import sys
+if len(sys.argv) == 2:
+    infile = sys.argv[1]
+else:
+    infile = 'data.txt'
+if len(sys.argv) == 3:
+    outfile = sys.argv[2]
+else:
+    outfile = 'plot.png'
 
 
 x_values = []
 y_values = []
 y_err = []
 
-with open('data.txt') as FILE:
+with open(infile) as FILE:
     data = csv.reader(FILE, delimiter='\t')
     for row in data:
         x_values.append(float(row[4]))
@@ -16,4 +25,4 @@ with open('data.txt') as FILE:
         y_err.append(float(row[1]))
     print(x_values)
     plt.errorbar(x_values,y_values,yerr=y_err, fmt='.')
-    plt.savefig('plot.png')
+    plt.savefig(outfile)