{"id":1969,"date":"2013-08-08T10:54:29","date_gmt":"2013-08-08T15:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/?p=1969"},"modified":"2013-08-13T09:59:17","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T14:29:17","slug":"how-to-present-statistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/how-to-present-statistics\/","title":{"rendered":"How to present statistics without boring your audience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.johnchow.com\/6-effective-ways-to-write-a-boring-headline\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1971\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/how-to-present-statistics\/boring_lecture\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/boring_lecture.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"500,309\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"boring_lecture\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/boring_lecture-300x185.jpeg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/boring_lecture.jpeg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1971\" alt=\"boring_lecture\" src=\"http:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/boring_lecture.jpeg\" width=\"500\" height=\"309\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/boring_lecture.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/boring_lecture-300x185.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/boring_lecture-160x98.jpeg 160w, https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/boring_lecture-260x160.jpeg 260w, https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/boring_lecture-360x222.jpeg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A few days ago I found a very valuable, yet free resource for improving the way we report statistics.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.unece.org\/stats\/documents\/writing.html\" target=\"_blank\">Making Data Meaningful<\/a> is a series of short, sweet and free ebooks created by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe as a practical tool to improve the way charts, tables and statistical data are presented to the general public.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be deterred by the official designed-by-committee air that a UN publication may have, this are books inspired by the latest trends on mass communications and data visualization. In it you will find several references to some of my favorite books: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0970601972\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0970601972&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=text-media-20\" target=\"_blank\">Few&#8217;s &#8220;Show Me The Numbers&#8221;<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0961392142\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0961392142&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=text-media-20\" target=\"_blank\">Tufte&#8217;s &#8220;The Visual Display of Quantitative Information&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I particularly like Part 1, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.unece.org\/fileadmin\/DAM\/stats\/documents\/writing\/MDM_Part1_English.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">A guide to writing stories about numbers<\/a>&#8220;, because in a very concise manner, it proposes a way of changing your approach to presenting statistics. Starting from the language. Look at this wonderful summary:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Use:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Language that people understand;<\/li>\n<li>Short sentences, short paragraphs;<\/li>\n<li>One main idea per paragraph;<\/li>\n<li>Subheadings to guide the reader&#8217;s eye;<\/li>\n<li>Simple language: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Get,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153acquire.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153About,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153approximately.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Same,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153identical\u00e2\u20ac\u009d;<\/li>\n<li>Bulleted lists for easy scanning;<\/li>\n<li>A good editor. Go beyond Spell-Check; ask a colleague to read your article;<\/li>\n<li>Active voice. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We found that&#8230;\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Not: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was found that&#8230;.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d;<\/li>\n<li>Numbers in a consistent fashion: For example, choose 20 or twenty, and stick with your choice;<\/li>\n<li>Rounded numbers (both long decimals and big numbers);<\/li>\n<li>Embedded quotes (these are sentences that generally explain \u00e2\u20ac\u0153how\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153why\u00e2\u20ac\u009d,<\/li>\n<li>and which journalists like to use verbatim in their news stories in quotes);<\/li>\n<li>URLs, or electronic links, to provide your reader with a full report containing further information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Avoid:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Elevator statistics\u00e2\u20ac\u009d: This went up, this went down, this went up;<\/li>\n<li>argon and technical terms;<\/li>\n<li>Acronyms;<\/li>\n<li>All capital letters and all italics: Mixed upper and lower case is easier to read;<\/li>\n<li>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Table reading\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, that is, describing every cell of a complex table in your text.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And then, they present several ways on how you could improve your writing skills:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Not Good:<\/strong><br \/>\nFrom January to August, the total square metres of utility floor space building starts rose by 20.5% from the January to August period last year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Better:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the first eight months of 2004, the amount of utility floor space started was about 20% higher than in the same period of 2003.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Also, another wonderful summary about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/en\/how-to-create-better-charts\/\" target=\"_blank\">creating better charts<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Achieve clarity in your graphics by:<\/li>\n<li>Using solids rather than patterns for line styles and fills;<\/li>\n<li>Avoiding data point markers on line graphs;<\/li>\n<li>Using data values on a graph only if they don&#8217;t interfere with the reader&#8217;s ability to see the big picture;<\/li>\n<li>Starting the Y axis scale at zero;<\/li>\n<li>Using only one unit of measurement per graphic;<\/li>\n<li>Using two-dimensional designs for two-dimensional data;<\/li>\n<li>Making all text on the graph easy to understand;\n<ul>\n<li>Not using abbreviations;<\/li>\n<li>Avoiding acronyms;<\/li>\n<li>Writing labels from left to right;<\/li>\n<li>Using proper grammar;<\/li>\n<li>Avoiding legends except on maps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Few people stop to think about how others will interpret or read their findings. Others are delusional enough that they deliberately stay away from this &#8220;journalistic style&#8221; and think that numbers speak for themselves. That&#8217;s rarely the case.<\/p>\n<p>Even if you have a chart that tries to explain the numbers, you still have to put up some work to make those statistics interesting enough so that they stand out and you don&#8217;t bore or confuse your audience. You have to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/en\/telling-stories-with-charts\/\" target=\"_blank\">tell a compelling story<\/a>, you have to incite curiosity, questioning and further exploration. Even if you&#8217;re doing a private report, you have to be a journalist and a storyteller.<\/p>\n<p>So if you want a quick crash course on the subject, go on the UNECE website, download <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unece.org\/stats\/documents\/writing.html\" target=\"_blank\">Making Data Meaningful<\/a> and give it a read.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few days ago I found a very valuable, yet free resource for improving the way we report statistics. Making Data Meaningful is a series of short, sweet and free ebooks created by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe as a practical tool to improve the way charts, tables and statistical data are presented&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/how-to-present-statistics\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to present statistics without boring your audience<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[197],"class_list":["post-1969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projectmanagement-en","tag-visualization","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tlzy-vL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2068,"url":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/moneyballing-criminal-justice\/","url_meta":{"origin":1969,"position":0},"title":"Moneyballing criminal justice","author":"Daniel Pradilla","date":"29\/01\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZJNESMhIxQ0 One of the problems of justice systems everywhere is that they depend on subjectivity and have near zero data-mining expertise. Because of that, tons of money are wasted in keeping low-risk offenders in jail. As the attorney general for New Jersey, Anne Milgram changed the panorama of her state's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lifestyle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lifestyle","link":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/category\/lifestyle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/ZJNESMhIxQ0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2123,"url":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/data-design\/","url_meta":{"origin":1969,"position":1},"title":"Data + Design","author":"Daniel Pradilla","date":"03\/11\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A team of over 50 people have collaborated in Data+Design, a book about preparing and visualizing information. It's a thorough but simple introduction to data collection and visualization, very thoroughly written and chock full of great advice. \u00a0 It's open-source too, published in its present form using O'Reilly's Atlas e-publishing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Project Mgmt.&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Project Mgmt.","link":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/category\/projectmanagement-en\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"data-design-cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/data-design-cover.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/data-design-cover.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/data-design-cover.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/data-design-cover.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1987,"url":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/short-guide-to-pentaho-data-integration\/","url_meta":{"origin":1969,"position":2},"title":"A short and sweet introduction to Pentaho Data Integration","author":"Daniel Pradilla","date":"16\/08\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Whenever I have to create or maintain a Pentaho Data Integration scheduled job I have to go back to the Pentaho wiki or google for use cases. Although I should, I never remember the specifics and going through 2007 forum posts and outdated documentation is always a pain. Recently, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Project Mgmt.&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Project Mgmt.","link":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/category\/projectmanagement-en\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"6906OT_Instant Pentaho Data Integration Kitchen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/6906OT_Instant-Pentaho-Data-Integration-Kitchen.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2162,"url":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/the-incredible-rarity-of-falsifying-data-about-changing-your-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":1969,"position":3},"title":"The incredible rarity of falsifying data about changing your mind","author":"Daniel Pradilla","date":"12\/06\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Episode 555 of This American Life has a very cool story about a study on how a group of canvassers were able to influence people who were against gay marriage to change their mind: Curious, but kinda logically, people appeared to change their mind once the canvasser, a member of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lifestyle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lifestyle","link":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/category\/lifestyle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1984,"url":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/una-breve-guia-de-pentaho-data-integration\/","url_meta":{"origin":1969,"position":4},"title":"Una breve gu\u00c3\u00ada de Pentaho Data Integration","author":"Daniel Pradilla","date":"16\/08\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Cada vez que tengo que mantener un job de Pentaho Data Integration, tengo que volver al wiki de Pentaho o buscar en google algunos casos de uso. Aunque deber\u00c3\u00ada, nunca recuerdo los detalles espec\u00c3\u00adficos y buscar entre posts de 2007 y documentaci\u00c3\u00b3n a\u00c3\u00b1eja, es siempre doloroso. Hace poco, me tropec\u00c3\u00a9\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Control de Proyectos&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Control de Proyectos","link":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/category\/controldeproyectos\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"6906OT_Instant Pentaho Data Integration Kitchen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/6906OT_Instant-Pentaho-Data-Integration-Kitchen.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2074,"url":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/nate-silver-and-the-age-of-data-journalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1969,"position":5},"title":"Nate Silver And The Age of Data Journalism","author":"Daniel Pradilla","date":"24\/03\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago, the new version of Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight went live, backed by ESPN. According to Silver's observations, explained in his site's manifesto, the market is ripe for a data-oriented journalism. I totally agree. A day doesn't go by in which I hear or read an argument that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lifestyle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lifestyle","link":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/category\/lifestyle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"538_intro4","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/538_intro4.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/538_intro4.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/538_intro4.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}