The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers
312 pages
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13 text boxes, 55 figures, 20 tables
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5-1/2 x 8-1/2
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© 2004
People who work well with numbers are often stymied by how to write about them. Those who don't often work with numbers have an even tougher time trying to put them into words. For instance, scientists and policy analysts learn to calculate and interpret numbers, but not how to explain them to a general audience. Students learn about gathering data and using statistical techniques, but not how to write about their results. And readers struggling to make sense of numerical information are often left confused by poor explanations. Many books elucidate the art of writing, but books on writing about numbers are nonexistent.
Until now. Here, Jane Miller, an experienced research methods and statistics teacher, gives writers the assistance they need. The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers helps bridge the gap between good quantitative analysis and good expository writing. Field-tested with students and professionals alike, this book shows writers how to think about numbers during the writing process.
Miller begins with twelve principles that lay the foundation for good writing about numbers. Conveyed with real-world examples, these principles help writers assess and evaluate the best strategy for representing numbers. She next discusses the fundamental tools for presenting numbers—tables, charts, examples, and analogies—and shows how to use these tools within the framework of the twelve principles to organize and write a complete paper.
By providing basic guidelines for successfully using numbers in prose, The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers will help writers of all kinds clearly and effectively tell a story with numbers as evidence. Readers and writers everywhere will be grateful for this much-needed mentor.
Until now. Here, Jane Miller, an experienced research methods and statistics teacher, gives writers the assistance they need. The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers helps bridge the gap between good quantitative analysis and good expository writing. Field-tested with students and professionals alike, this book shows writers how to think about numbers during the writing process.
Miller begins with twelve principles that lay the foundation for good writing about numbers. Conveyed with real-world examples, these principles help writers assess and evaluate the best strategy for representing numbers. She next discusses the fundamental tools for presenting numbers—tables, charts, examples, and analogies—and shows how to use these tools within the framework of the twelve principles to organize and write a complete paper.
By providing basic guidelines for successfully using numbers in prose, The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers will help writers of all kinds clearly and effectively tell a story with numbers as evidence. Readers and writers everywhere will be grateful for this much-needed mentor.
"A most original work--a how-to guide for just about anyone trying to write (or talk) about numeric data. Miller's is a mentor's voice."
"Highly recommended. The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers addresses core issues in statistical literacy and is a must-read for journalists, advocacy writers, and policy analysts."--Milo Schield, professor, Augsburg College, and director of the W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project
"Jane Miller, an academic at Rutgers University who trained as a demographer, warns against common charting errors. Hers, much more a textbook, is clearly written, with a checklist at the end of each chapter, invaluable for students. It should be required reading for journalists and politicians.
Data need a context: a figure or two tells you little. The fundamental questions of journalism—who, what, when, and where—have to be answered in charts too. Although Ms. Miller's book is chiefly concerned with writing about numbers, the last chapter gives advice about speaking with numbers. In presentations using visual aids, she says, use no more than one slide a minute."—Economist
Data need a context: a figure or two tells you little. The fundamental questions of journalism—who, what, when, and where—have to be answered in charts too. Although Ms. Miller's book is chiefly concerned with writing about numbers, the last chapter gives advice about speaking with numbers. In presentations using visual aids, she says, use no more than one slide a minute."—Economist
"Professor Miller's book is a unique and effective teaching tool. It gives students the opportunity to focus on a rarely practiced skill -
how to write the words that go along with the numbers. Widespread adoption of The Chicago Guide to Writing About Numbers threatens to relieve readers of quantitative analyses from the pain, confusion, and boredom so often associated with the activity."--David H. Guston, Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University
how to write the words that go along with the numbers. Widespread adoption of The Chicago Guide to Writing About Numbers threatens to relieve readers of quantitative analyses from the pain, confusion, and boredom so often associated with the activity."--David H. Guston, Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University
"An invaluable supplement for undergraduate and graduate research methods and statistics courses. Miller provides clear and concise guidelines on how to express statistical results in pragmatic ways. While practicing the principles in Writing about Numbers, students often experience an epiphany of understanding about statistics."--Diane M. Davis, Program Director of Project L/EARN, Associate Director of Research Computing, Institute for Health , Health Care Policy & Aging Research Rutgers University
“Miller presents a holistic and accessible approach to understanding the issues in communicating information by focusing on the entire writing process. Besides providing foundation principles for writing about numbers and exploring tools for displaying figures, the book combines statistical literacy with good writing. Key statistical concepts and practices are discussed in the context of ‘telling a story using numbers as evidence.’ Ideas are demonstrated using real-world examples. The book supplies guidelines for writing an introduction, data collection methodology, data analysis, results interpretation, conclusion, and preparing graphics. The language is unusually clear and precise, and the book's layout supports quick browsing. Highly recommended.”—Choice
“This book contains useful information on writing about numbers; I found very few principles or details that I would disagree with. . . . This is primarily a book for writers with little or no background in dealing with numerical data in their prose; it may also be useful for undergraduates in science or engineering.”
"Business students and entry-level technicians may benefit from this guide, but it has just as much to offer to nontechnical writers who desire to enter the new world of data analysis and presentation."
Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Boxes
Acknowledgments
1. Why Write about Numbers?
Part I. Principles
2. Seven Basic Principles
3. Causality, Statistical Significance, and Substantive Significance
4. Technical but Important: Five More Basic Principles
Part II. Tools
5. Types of Quantitative Comparison
6. Creating Effective Tables
7. Creating Effective Charts
8. Choosing Effective Examples and Analogies
Part III. Pulling It All Together
9. Writing about Distributions and Associations
10. Writing about Data and Methods
11. Writing Introductions, Results, and Conclusions
12. Speaking about Numbers
Appendix A. Implementing "Generalization, Example, Exceptions" (GEE)
Notes
Reference List
Index
List of Figures
List of Boxes
Acknowledgments
1. Why Write about Numbers?
Part I. Principles
2. Seven Basic Principles
3. Causality, Statistical Significance, and Substantive Significance
4. Technical but Important: Five More Basic Principles
Part II. Tools
5. Types of Quantitative Comparison
6. Creating Effective Tables
7. Creating Effective Charts
8. Choosing Effective Examples and Analogies
Part III. Pulling It All Together
9. Writing about Distributions and Associations
10. Writing about Data and Methods
11. Writing Introductions, Results, and Conclusions
12. Speaking about Numbers
Appendix A. Implementing "Generalization, Example, Exceptions" (GEE)
Notes
Reference List
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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Economics and Business: Economics--Econometrics and Statistics
Political Science: Public Policy
Sociology: General Sociology
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