Written Communication: One Number Story

James Normington

Brainstorm

In your project groups:

  • come up with as many ideas of one number summaries (e.g. mean, median, max, min, count, percent, ratio, etc.) that might address your broad research question
  • Mac Data Example:
    • Percentage of students who have more than 1 major
    • Percentage of students who only take the bare minimum of courses in divisions outside their major division
    • Mean number of concentrations per student
    • Max number of concentrations per student
    • Max number of courses per division

Writing with Numbers

  1. Keep the number of digits in a paragraph below 8.
  • Before: The Office of Redundancy’s budget rose 48 percent in 2013, from $700.3 million to $1.03 billion.
  • Revision: Over the past year, the Office of Redundancy’s budget grew by nearly half, to $1 billion.




adapted from Numbers in the Newsroom by Sarah Cohen

Writing with Numbers

  1. Round a lot
  • Only use precision when it matters. For example, never round when it comes to death counts; every body matters.




adapted from Numbers in the Newsroom by Sarah Cohen

Writing with Numbers

  1. Think in ratios

  • We can’t think clearly about very big or very small numbers. Make the numbers you deal with understandable by contextualizing them.

    • Example: A widely quoted estimate of fixing the Year 2000 computer bug was $50 billion for U.S. companies. How big is $50 billion? At the time, it was smaller than Bill Gates’ net worth. It was the cost of two hurricanes. It was the income of people living in the Portland, Ore., area.



adapted from Numbers in the Newsroom by Sarah Cohen

Writing with Numbers

  1. Use devices from everyday life

  • Most people have some arithmetic that they perform instinctively (e.g. discounts in retail, tipping at a restaurant, 2 to 1 odds). Convert your writing into the commonly used scales. Keep in mind that a percent change (implies multiplicative change) is very different from a percentage point difference (implies additive change). Both are correct:

    • Population growth has slowed by about 1.3 percentage points since its peak in 1950, to 0.7 percent. (Simple difference between 2 percent and 0.7 percent, expressed in percentage points.)
    • Population growth in the U.S. slowed by almost two-thirds from its peak in 1950, to 0.7 percent in 2013. (Percent difference between 2 percent and 0.7 percent)

adapted from Numbers in the Newsroom by Sarah Cohen

One Number Story Assignment

Go to One Number Story Assignment.

  • Notice other resources.

  • Open One Number Story Assignment.

One Number Story - Concept

Each person calculates 1 number from their project data.

  • Within the project group, each student should choose a different numerical summary.

Each person write a TRUE story about the data that focuses on that 1 number.

One Number Story - Structure

  • 250-500 words
  • include a title/headline
  • focus on 1 number but you can include other numbers to contextualize your numerical summary (“as compared to what”)
  • apply the principles of crafting sentences (from Monday)
  • apply the principles of data journalism (writing with numbers)

One Number Story - Timeline

  • Rough draft due before class Thursday, April 13th
  • You’ll present this to a random group of classmates
  • Incorporate their feedback, and submit a final version by Wednesday, April 19th @ 11:59pm

Rest of time and after class

  • Work on One Number Story rough draft (Assignment 10)

  • After calculating one number, sit down and type. Don’t aim for perfection.

  • We’ll do peer review of your writing