Question

Upon finding all the values, such as amp, the period and any shifts, how would I know how to graph the actual graph, and more importantly, to scale the horizontal axis?

Answer 1

The main point you have to stick to in order to solve this task is to divide given period by four and space out all the given points. Here is a picture which will make it absolutely clear.
You can see that in this pic we add the pi/8, accodrding to the basic graph of sine and cosine.
I bet this points will help you! Regards.