Using Statistics in Writing Video Lecture

In this lesson we’ll talk about how to write with statistics.

Most of you probably know what statistics are, but for those of you who don’t, I’ll just explain a little bit.

Now, I’m not talking about the formal definition of statistics.

If you’re a mathematician, don’t get mad at me.

I’m just talking about statistics for writing.

We see statistics all the time, statistics about the number of people who like a certain restaurant or statistics about the number of people who saw the last Star Wars movie.

Statistics are data about groups.

So if we have groups of things, we want to know which part of the group does something and which part of the group does something else.

That would be a statistic.

Statistics are numbers and percents, and ratios.

And statistics are one kind of fact that we can use in our research papers.

Now some subjects depend on statistics a lot, subjects like Science or health or sociology or criminal justice, those things might use statistics a lot in their writing.

Other subjects like English, may not use that many statistics, but you could use a statistic in almost any research paper to add support to an idea or point that you are trying to make.

These are some of the correct ways to use a statistic in your research paper.

You’ve probably learned before about using a statistic as an interesting hook for the introduction. You can also statistics for the details of the body paragraphs.

You can even write a kind of paragraph called a statistics paragraph.

In that case, you might have more than one statistic in the paragraph.

And in some subjects, it would be okay to use bullet points for your statistics.

This is something you’d want to check with your teacher on.

In English papers, you would want to include them in a paragraph not as bullet points.

But in some cases, it may be more appropriate to use bullet points.

For the exercise in this class, we’ll use the paragraph format just to practice that.

Because it’s hard to use statistics correctly in writing.

These are some places you would not want to use statistics.

Never use a statistic as your thesis statement. Remember, the thesis statement needs to be debatable.

And a statistic is a fact.

You also for the same reason, don’t want to use statistics in your topic sentences.

Remember the topic sentences should be your own point.

And then you can use the statistics to support that point.

You also don’t want to end your body paragraphs with a statistic, because after each statistic, should it analyze in some way and explain how it relates to your point.

And finally, don’t use statistics in your conclusion paragraph.

Remember in the conclusion paragraph, you should not introduce any new ideas.

So there’s not likely to be any reason to put a statistic in the final paragraph.

You would put those statistics in the body of the essay.

So let’s look at how you could write a paragraph using statistics.

Remember, you’re going to start your paragraphs with your own idea in the topic sentence.

And here’s an example sentence.

After you state your point, then you would introduce the source of the statistic.

You might say, where it came from?

You might say, what study it’s from?

Or you might just describe what kind of statistic this is.

Then you would write about the key statistic that supports your point.

You want to make sure to blend the numbers with the grammar, that the grammar makes sense in your sentence.

If you’re going to use more than one statistic, then you want to make sure to put them in a logical order.

Maybe from the highest to the lowest, or from the longest to the shortest.

Just don’t jump around with the statistics.

This will confuse your reader.

After you state the statistic, don’t just move on to another point.

Draw some conclusion from this statistic.

Relate it somehow to your point.

And before you move on, provide some other kind of concluding thought.

You could develop an inference or a recommendation or make a prediction.

Just make sure the statistic supports that conclusion that you make.

So, what I’ve just described, do I’d make for a short paragraph, if you only had one statistic but, you could also use the same structure to develop a longer paragraph.

Each statistic could be a supporting idea in the paragraph.

So you could conceivably have two or three statistics, and you introduce each one and draw conclusions about each one.

There’s no exact way to use statistics in your paragraphs, but the key is to make sure that it’s logical, so that your reader doesn’t get confused.

Finally, I’ll add that you don’t want to overuse statistics.

Remember I said, some subjects depend on statistics more than others.

If it’s appropriate for your field of study, then use statistics.

If it’s not, then don’t use them or use them sparingly.