Issue 139 – September 2024
Don’t make your readers do the math! four ways to explain numbers
With any complicated topic that serves up large numbers, it’s helpful to offer context.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes the right words are just as effective.
That’s how I felt when I read Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World by John Vaillant.
Of course I had heard about the wildfires that tore through Fort McMurray, Alberta, in 2016. News reports showed walls of flame and images of desperate people fleeing the city. The smoke was so bad it made skies hazy as far away as southern Ontario and the northern U.S. Still, I didn’t have a full grasp of how apocalyptic the out-of-control wildfire was until I read Fire Weather.
The book is both gripping and frightening. Vaillant thoroughly researched both that wildfire and fire itself, as well as the oil industry and climate change. He is a master at using analogies, examples and detail to paint a clear picture of what he called “the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina.”
With any complicated topic that serves up large numbers, it’s helpful to offer context. For instance, it’s hard to picture nearly half a million square miles, an area Vaillant described in the book as blackened by fire. However, he made it clear by comparing it to “an area the size of France and Spain combined.”
I’ve collected some other examples of explaining numbers to show their importance. Here are four ways to help anchor numbers – especially large or small ones – so your readers don’t have to do the math:
1. Make a large number relatable by comparing it to something known
The roughly 5,000 litres of water required every day to power the steam trains in Calgary’s Heritage Park is “enough water to take 50 baths, run a garden hose for five hours or flush 100 toilets – all activities now frowned upon in a city now three weeks into an unprecedented water main break that isn’t totally fixed yet.” – Alex Boyd, Toronto Star
“The world creates 57 million tons of plastic pollution every year…It’s enough to fill New York City’s Central Park with plastic waste as high as the Empire State Building.” – researchers at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom
2. Make a small number understandable by comparing it to something known
The Brazilian flea toad, the world’s smallest known amphibian, is just under 6.5 millimeters from snout to rump. “That’s roughly half a millimeter shorter than the previous record holder and small enough to sit comfortably on a pinkie fingernail.” – Erin Garcia de Jesús, Science News
“By the year 2050, there’s going to be more plastic by weight in the ocean than fish; every week a person consumes five grams, or a credit card’s worth, of plastic.” – Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times
3. Do the math, and give numbers context
“Linking extreme numbers to time puts things into perspective: 1 million seconds is nearly 12 days, whereas 1 billion seconds is almost 32 years.” – Cornell University mathematician Steven Strogatz
“Since Perseverance landed on Mars in 2021, [the device called] MOXIE has generated a total of 122 grams of oxygen – about what a small dog breathes in 10 hours.” – Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4. Show significance without actual numbers
“It was the ‘century storm’: the one-in-100-year rainfall that city planners have braced for. Except, it hasn’t been a century since the last one. It hasn’t even been long enough to age a particularly sharp cheddar cheese.” – Kate Allen, Toronto Star
“He steers toward the beach, aiming for a potato-shaped rock the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. He’s here to take its picture.” – J. Besl, Hakai Magazine
You don’t have to choose between the thousand words or the photo, either. Use both, or whichever best tells the story.
Have you seen any particularly helpful explanations of numbers? Please share. I’m always looking for good examples.
Reponse to the August issue about flabby writing
“Super helpful tips, Sue. Thanks, I’ll definitely share these with my co-workers.” – Katie Rapp
“Great discussion, as usual. My latest peeve is the use of what instead of which. ‘She asked what solutions they had.’ To my mind, ‘She asked which solutions they had.’ Meaning, to select from among several possibilities.” – Janet Falk
Related reading:
Are wildfires getting deadlier?
How to write about numbers, including how to use percentages and fractions
In the Red Jacket Diaries:
A whale of a tale told in numbers
More to say about artificial intelligence in links you might have missed
© Copyright 2024 Get It Write. All rights reserved. She/her. Find me online at GetItWrite.ca, connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on X (I’m still there; are you?). And why not subscribe to Wordnerdery?