Eurostat 1 Writing Statistics: Relevant parameters for highlighting in the article/report CONTRACTOR IS ACTING UNDER A FRAMEWORK CONTRACT CONCLUDED WITH THE COMMISSION Iraj Namdarian Luxumbourg – 15/01/2015

Eurostat 2.Relevant parameters for highlighting in the article/report: 1 Principles of Media Objectivity 2 Making Data Meaningful (writing stories about numbers) 3 Visual elements 4 Review and discussion about some international Official Statistics 2 Session overview

Eurostat 3 “If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Eurostat Media Objectivity: People's right to true information Dedication to objective reality Social responsibility Professional integrity Public access and participation 4

Eurostat Media Objectivity: Respect for privacy and human dignity Respect for public interest Respect for universal values and diversity of cultures Principles of freedom in the honest collection and publication of news, and of the right of fair comment and criticism Respect for truth and for the right of the public to truth 5

Eurostat 6 Making Data Meaningful

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Making Data Meaningful: How to write a statistical story Statistical offices have an obligation to make the data they collect useful to the public. Stories get people interested in statistical information and help them to understand what the information means in their lives. 8

Eurostat 2.2 Making Data Meaningful: How to write a statistical story After they read good statistical stories, people should feel wiser and informed, not confused. 9

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: How to write a statistical story A statistical story must be based on sufficient knowledge of the data and the phenomenon under study. 10

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: How to write a statistical story When preparing a statistical story, you must also remember the European Statistics Code of Practice: ( age/portal/product_details/publication?p_ product_code=KS ) age/portal/product_details/publication?p_ product_code=KS

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: How to write a statistical story Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics: Impartiality; Professionalism; Metadata; 12

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: How to write a statistical story Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics: Comment on erroneous interpretation; Diverse sources; Confidentiality; Transparency; 13

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: How to write a statistical story Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics: National coordination; International standards; International cooperation. 14

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Possible topics/themes for stories: Current interest (policy agenda, media coverage, etc.) Reference to everyday life (food prices, health, etc.) 15

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Possible topics/themes for stories: Reference to a particular group (teens, women, the elderly, etc.) Personal experiences (transportation, education, etc.) 16

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Possible topics/themes for stories: Holidays (Labour Day, Christmas, etc.) Current events (statistics on a topic frequently in the news) 17

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Possible topics/themes for stories: A regular series (“This is the way we live now”, “Spotlight on xxxx”, etc.) Calendar themes (spring, summer, etc.) New findings 18

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Write like a journalist - The “inverted pyramid”: 19

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Write like a journalist - The “inverted pyramid”: Journalists use the “inverted pyramid” style. Conclusions at the top of the news story, and followed with secondary points in order of decreasing importance throughout the text. 20

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Some tips for clear writing: Use short sentences; Aim for one idea per sentence; Break up long sentences; 21

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Some tips for clear writing: Start each paragraph with the most important message; Keep paragraphs short; Keep your writing crisp. 22

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: The lead: Your first paragraph The first paragraph, or lead, is the most important element of the story. The lead not only has to grab the reader’s attention and draw him or her into the story, but it also has to capture the general message of the data. 23

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: The lead: Your first paragraph The Lead should not summarise the whole report. The Lead provides the most important and interesting facts. The Lead should not be packed with assumptions, explanations of methodology or information on how the data have been collected. 24

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Tips for Writing a Lead Brevity: Leads are often short and concise. Specificity: A lead should be as specific as possible. Active sentences: Strong verbs will make the Lead lively and interesting. 25

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Tips for Writing a Lead Audience and context: Taking into account what the reader already knows. In today’s media culture, most readers become aware of breaking news as it happens. 26

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Tips for Writing a Lead Focus on one or two findings Write in everyday language (the “popular science” level) Create images for your readers Focus on the things you want readers to remember. 27

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Tips for Writing a Lead What to Avoid: Flowery language: overuse of adverbs and adjectives in the leads. Unnecessary words or phrases: (unintentional) redundancy. For example, 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon 28

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Tips for Writing a Lead What to Avoid: Formulaic leads: Readers want information, but they also want to be entertained. The lead must sound genuine, not merely mechanical. 29

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Tips for Writing a Lead What to Avoid: It: Most editors frown on leads that begin with the word “it” because it is not precise and disorients the reader. 30

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Good writing techniques Terms meaningful to an economist may be foreign to a layperson, so avoid jargon. Use everyday language as much as possible. If you have to use difficult terms or acronyms, you should explain them the first time they are used. 31

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Good writing techniques Large numbers are difficult to grasp. Use the words millions, billions or trillions. Instead of 3,657,218, write “about 3.7 million.” You can also make data simpler and more comprehensible by using rates, such as per capita or per square mile. 32

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Good writing techniques Use: Language that people understand; Short sentences, short paragraphs; One main idea per paragraph; Subheadings to guide the reader’s eye; 33

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Good writing techniques Use: Simple language: “Get,” not “acquire.” “About,” not “approximately.” “Same,” not “identical”; Bulleted lists for easy scanning; 34

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Good writing techniques Use: A good editor. Go beyond Spell-Check; ask a colleague to read your article; Active voice. “We found that…” Not: “It was found that....”; 35

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Good writing techniques Use: Numbers in a consistent fashion: For example, choose 20 or twenty, and stick with your choice; Rounded numbers (both long decimals and big numbers); 36

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Good writing techniques Use: Embedded quotes (these are sentences that generally explain “how” or “why”, and which journalists like to use verbatim in their news stories in quotes); URLs, or electronic links, to provide your reader with a full report containing further information. 37

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Good writing techniques Avoid: “Elevator statistics”: This went up, this went down, this went up; Jargon and technical terms; Not explained Acronyms; 38

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Good writing techniques Avoid: All capital letters and all italics: Mixed upper and lower case is easier to read; “Table reading”, that is, describing every cell of a complex table in your text. 39

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Make the numbers “stick” Numbers don’t “talk”. But they should communicate a message, effectively and clearly. 40 How well they do this depends a lot on how well authors use numbers in their text.

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Make the numbers “stick” In a sense, journalists and statisticians are from two cultures. They tend not to talk the same language. Journalists communicate with words; statisticians communicate with numbers. 41

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Some suggestions for making the data “stick”: Don’t peel the onion. Get to the point Avoid proportions in brackets Avoid changing denominators Reduce big numbers to understandable levels 42

Eurostat 43 Visual elements

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Visual elements “a picture is worth a thousand words” 44

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Visual elements One of the best techniques for understanding data is to visualize the numbers as a picture. 45

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: The target group: different forms of presentation may be needed for different audiences (e.g. business or academia, specialists or the general population). 46 Tips about visual presentations:

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: The role of the graphic in the overall presentation: analysing the big picture or focusing attention on key points may require different types of visual presentations. 47 Tips about visual presentations:

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: How and where the message will be presented: a long, detailed analysis or a quick slideshow. 48 Tips about visual presentations:

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Contextual issues that may distort understanding: expert or novice data user. 49 Tips about visual presentations:

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: Whether textual analysis or a data table would be a better solution. 50 Tips about visual presentations:

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: 51 Tables: Five support components are needed to describe the data displayed in a table:

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: 52 Charts: Statistics can often be better understood when they are presented in a chart than in a table. A chart is a visual representation of statistical data, in which the data are represented by symbols such as bars or lines.

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: 53 Charts: Charts can be used to illustrate patterns in a large amount of data or to communicate a key finding or message.

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: 54 Charts: You should consider using charts if you want to show: Comparison: How much? Which item is bigger or smaller? Changes over time: How does a variable evolve?

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: 55 Charts: You should consider using charts if you want to show: Frequency distribution: How are the items distributed? What are the differences? Correlation: Are two variables linked? Relative share of a whole: How does one item compare to the total?

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: 56 A good chart: grabs the reader’s attention; presents the information simply, clearly and accurately; does not mislead;

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: 57 A good chart: displays the data in a concentrated way (e.g. one line chart instead of many pie charts); facilitates data comparison and highlights trends and differences; illustrates messages, themes or storylines in the accompanying text.

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: 58 Reconsider using charts when data: are very dispersed; have too few values; have too many values; show little or no variation.

Eurostat Making Data Meaningful: 59 BAD EXAMPLEGOOD EXAMPLE All components have maximum impact. The result is a busy chart, difficult to read, even though it shows only three values. This chart is much easier to read. Minimal use of support components ensures that data take centre stage.

Eurostat Thank you CONTRACTOR IS ACTING UNDER A FRAMEWORK CONTRACT CONCLUDED WITH THE COMMISSION 60