Writing a Statistical Story

A statistical story is a statistical report made into an interesting read. In a statistical story you analyze the data as thoroughly as you do in a statistical report but you present your findings and conclusions in a way which makes it interesting to read and easy to understand.

Writing technique to achieve this effect involves:

1. Making your story relevant to the reader: show the significance, importance and relevance of the most current information;

2. Making up a compelling title: write a line which is informative, appealing, magnetic;

e.g.

Gasoline prices hit 10-year low

Crime down for third year in a row

Single or cohabitating?

3. Using “inverted pyramid” style: start with the main findings, then build on your story line throughout the rest of the text.

e.g.

Positive about their homes, negative about their financial situation

The majority of adults in the Netherlands are satisfied with life in general. They are the most positive about the homes they live in, the least positive about their financial situation. Over-65s in particular are satisfied with their lives.

Useful tips on writing a statistical story

Introduction

• Introduction summarizes the story line concisely, clearly and simply. It states clearly what the story is about

• It should contain few numbers. In fact, try to write the first sentence using no figures at all.

• Don’t pack it with assumptions, explanations of methodology or information on how you collected the data.

e.g.

Despite mounting financial challenges during the 1990s, young people from moderate and low- income families were no less likely to attend university in 2001 than they were in 1993, according to a new study.

Main Body (Analysis)

• Paragraphs should start with a topic sentence that contains no numbers

• Use one main idea per paragraph approach;

• Make paragraphs short; avoid long sentences

• Use subheadings to guide the reader’s eye;

• Use bulleted lists for easy scanning if necessary;

e.g.

Single life in the city

One-person households are more common in cities and central municipalities than in more remote municipalities, both for men and women. In the most central municipalities, 27 per cent of men aged 20-59 live alone, and the corresponding figure for women in the same municipalities is 17 per cent. The most remote municipalities have a large surplus of single men aged 20-59, with two out of ten men living alone but only one out of ten women living alone.

Conclusion

• Sum up the main findings in a general form, avoid using too many numbers; use generalisions (majority, few, etc)

• Focus on the most interesting or unusual findings

• Exercise caution, suggestions should be well-grounded

e.g.

Compared with other countries, the Netherlands spends a relatively large amount on environmental protection and has relatively high energy tax rates. Revenues from environmental taxes tend  to decrease in recent years. What’s more, manufacturing and energy companies pay far less energy taxes than households.

Language:

• Use language that laymen understand

• Avoid jargon, technical terms and acronyms

• Write numbers in a consistent fashion: For example, choose 20 or twenty, and stick with your choice

• Large numbers are difficult to grasp. Use the words millions, billions or trillions. Instead of 3,657,218, write “about 3.7 million”

• Avoid “elevator statistics”: This went up, this went down, this went up

• Use cautious language (evidently, appears to be, there’s a tendency)

A Sample statistical story