They’re tools.
Statistics without direction and velocity are useless. They’re a bag of balls, or a rack of bats, blunt as a hockey puck or flabby as an under-inflated football. Pick your own silly analogy, but remember this: having them is pointless if you don’t know how to use them.
We all handle them differently.
Among the many approaches for handling statistics, you’ll find one that makes you comfortable, but some essentials are common to all good writers: they face forward, adopt a comfortable stance, stare down the opposition, deliver with confidence, and know how to use spin.
My number is a good number.
Readers need to be told how your number compares to the range of possible numbers. The statistic by itself means nothing until you place it into context.
- A full 50%
- As high as 50%
- Has improved to 50%
- Proud to announce we have achieved 50%
- At 50%, the perfect balance
My number is a bad number.
Except for experts in the field of your endeavor, your readers are at your mercy to interpret the value of the numbers you share. They count on you to guide them to an understanding of the importance of the evidence you present.
- A mere 50%
- As low as 50%
- Has sunk to 50%
- Regret to admit we have achieved only 50%
- At 50%, an awful compromise
Real-life example.
Michelle Obama on her book tour is talking frankly about infertility. The news announcer putting Obama’s miscarriage and subsequent worries into context shared these facts:
- Approximately 10% of American women between 18 and 45 who attempt to conceive, experience infertility to some degree.
- The percentage is higher for African-American women.
I have no idea whether those numbers are higher or lower than I should have expected, and the announcer was no help. She could have used the statistics in any of several ways to help me understand.
Find the useless sentence.
Though these sentences below are contradictory and entirely fictional, all but one serve a clear rhetorical purpose.
MINOR IN-CLASS TASK: Find the useless sentence in the list below. By useless, I mean the sentence wastes the statistic by withholding the context needed to know whether the number is a good number or a bad number.
Identify it by number in the Reply space, explain what’s wrong with it, and pledge to purge any sentences like it from your work.
- Modern medicine and Americans’ overall health have reduced the infertility rate to 10% for American women, though sadly the rate is higher for African-Americans.
- Shockingly, the infertility rate for African-American women in this country between 18 and 45 is higher than for women in many of the wealthiest African countries.
- The infertility rate has skyrocketed to 10% for all American women 18 to 45, even higher for African-Americans.
- 10% of American women between 18 and 45—more for African-Americans—who attempt to conceive, experience infertility to some degree.
- Though African-Americans lag behind by a few points, American women who wish to become pregnant have achieved a remarkable 90% fertility rate.
The Gamer 2.0
SleepyCat
Coffee Lover 03
doglover7025
Snowman10
excellentstudent27
Gymrat
hockeyfan
holistic25
ilovebeesss
ilovemydog
The Gamer
Naturechild101
BreakingBad45
ravensfan8
temporal111
thatpersonoverthere
toetio
username1132005
Calm&Patient
webbwrestler135
Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
Sentence 4. The problem with this sentence is that we do not know if this is a good or bad number. There is not enough information to be able to do anything with the statistic. It is just a fact listed with no context. I pledge to purge any sentences like this from my work.
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Good call, Eagles Fan.
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4. This sentence fails to provide the reader a baseline for women all over the world. Is 10% a good or bad percentage?
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Good question, ES
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all of them technically because we need the precent of African American women’s infertility rates. But i guess that 2 is the worst offender because it doesn’t pertain to the topic and doesn’t present actual numbers.
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It does provide a CONTEXT though, TPOT. Apparently readers will expect all Americans to be more supported in their deliveries than Africans.
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5.The sentence doesn’t explain if 90% is good or bad, and it doesn’t give African Americans’ fertility rate for comparison, so it lacks context.
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It’s not perfect context, but the word “remarkable” does indicate that 90% is a strong number.
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Username
2 I think is wrong because of the ending of the sentence.
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Huh?
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sentence 4 unknown if the 10% is a good or a bad number. it’s trying to be stated as a fact with no context of what it is.
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Good call, Gymrat.
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10% of American women between 18 and 45—more for African-Americans—who attempt to conceive, experience infertility to some degree. This sentence gives us no way to know if 10% is a good thing or a bad thing. It gives you a statistic but no context to draw a conclusion from.
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Yep.
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HockeyFan- I would 4, it doesn’t really give enough information to truly form a good conclusion of the topic.
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I would, too.
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2 is the worst because it does not give information that is relative to the topic.
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The shocking contrast isn’t context?
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Number 2, because it doesn’t tell me which countries are being compared to prove the statistic and it doesn’t provide a percentage to further support by how much higher the infertility rate is.
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It does provide context, though.
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I believe sentence 4 is the sentence that has something wrong with it because the sentence doesn’t imply that 10% is a good or bad thing. I will try not to write things like this in my work.
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Try?
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#4 – Because it does not explain if 10% it’s a good number or a bad number
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Right there with you.
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Sentence 4 because it does not put that 10% number into context. All we know is the infertility rate is higher in African American women aged 18-45 compared to other women in U.S. But, as I said, we don’t know what a poor infertility rate is.
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This is Holistic25 commenting
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Agreed. Thanks for self-identifying, Holistic.
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4, i dont know if 10% is high or low relative to anywhere else
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I don’t either.
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id say its either 2 or 4, regarding the information they gave us were not sure if the number displayed is positive and neither one of them give or explain if the % for african american women is or if its a good number
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Thoughtful
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#4, the sentence doesn’t provide context on whether 10% is a positive or a negative percentage.
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So true.
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Doglover- I think 2 is wrong, they need to add a percentage, I also think 5 might be wrong, because “lag behind by a few points” is vague, as well as 1. 1. doesnt mention the specific rate.
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It’s doglover— I think its #2, its vague they dont add a percentage
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Specifics aren’t necessarily essential. In this exercise, we’re just looking for context. 4 provides none.
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All of them are not good because they don’t go in depth by explaining properly with the numbers and also if it’s good and bad? It lacks the proper context in all of them and just another sentence with some facts would be able to help.
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Sort of true. None may provide perfect context, but #4 doesn’t even indicate whether the author thinks the number is good or bad. That’s the point of this exercise. The author just provided the detail without “Wielding” the detail.
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