Focus on the Killer Stat

When it comes to numbers, focus in on the killer stat.

As a reporter and science writer, many of the topics I've written about are dense with data and numbers: budgetary fluctuations, outcomes from one cancer treatment versus another, how many vehicle pursuits violated the police department's own policies, and so forth.

It can feel like the more data and hard numbers you include in a story, the more trustworthy and authoritative it will be.

But it's all too easy to drown your readers in numbers, causing them to tune out.

You're the director of cinematography for your story. Readers are counting on you to help focus their attention. Building your story around just one or two killer stats can actually help your readers wrap their minds around the topic.

For example, here's a fairly standard paragraph that appeared in my local newspaper recently:

"The area median income for a four-person family has jumped by over $11,000 in the last year — up from $106,600 in 2021 to $117,800 for 2022, new data shows."

Including years, that sentence has six numbers! In my experience, that's four or five too many.

Here's how I would refocus the sentence around a killer stat. (It's also a good example of another important rule: Always do the math for your reader!)

"In the Ann Arbor area, the median family income jumped by more than 10% over the past year, new data shows.

That means half of local four-person families now earn more than $117,800, and half earn less."

More Math Advice

• Round off numbers to make them more digestible, unless precision is critical.
• Be ethical with numbers by putting them in context — increases to small numbers result in large percentage changes. Leading with the percentage change may elide the on-the-ground reality. (You might be able to legitimately state that rabies cases in your area tripled this year — but is that the most ethical portrayal if they rose from a single case to three?)
• Memorize the formula for percentage changes (new number minus old number, divided by the old number).
• Learn the difference between average and median, and when to deploy each. (Imagine a bus with 50 people, one of whom is Bill Gates. Their average income would be in the millions, but the median income might be $25,000. Which is more accurate for your story?)
• Learn the difference between percentages and percentage points. (If savings account interest rises from 1% to 2%, that's a 1 percentage point increase and also a 100% increase.)
• Additional resources if math really isn't your thing: Numbers in the Newsroom (IRE); Math for Journalists Certificate (Poynter)