: Publication

Persuading with Numbers provides a concise but important guide that technical communicators can use to integrate quantitative data into their work. This text not only shows students how to understand and assess quantitative data they gather through reading, but also how to design and gather their own quantitative data and incorporate it into written arguments and visual displays. Instructors will thus find PWN an important adjunct in training the technical communicator.

 

Cheryl Geisler, author of Analyzing Streams of Language

Professor, Simon Fraser University

 

An excellent guide to practical use of quantitative data—helpful for technical writing classes and for writers on the job. The topic is too often covered only briefly but is essential for effective technical communication.

Diana C. Reep, author of Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Reading

Professor Emeritus, University of Akron

 

Students who graduate from my college tend toward careers in education, healthcare, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses, where they are expected to communicate effectively. Their broad experience in the rhetorical use of numbers to establish context and evaluate evidence helps them convey authority and precision in all disciplines as well as on the job. This book provides students with the necessary information and tools to practice quantitative reasoning in their reading, researching, writing, and visualizing.

 

Carol Rutz, Director of the College Writing Program, Carleton College

 

Persuading with Numbers is a great addition to rhetoric and writing studies in that it focuses on quantitative literacy, an often neglected area in student, professional, and academic writing. Students will benefit significantly from concrete examples and real world situations, as well as the introduction of theoretical concepts that relate to the effective rhetorical use of quantitative information in research and writing. PWN not only focuses on the use of quantitative data in reading and writing, but also teaches students the important principles for researching with data, making it a very valuable addition to the field.

 

Stacey K. Sowards, Professor, University of Texas at El Paso

 

Persuading with Numbers is a practical primer designed to help communicators and writers in technical, professional, and scientific fields develop skills in reading, researching, writing, and visualizing quantitative information. Accessible and concept-driven, this book focusing specifically on key rhetorical concepts for integrating quantitative information effectively in analyzing, informing, and persuading in a range of workplace and technical writing purposes. It complements existing approaches by offering students opportunities for more hands-on engagement with quantitative data. An undergraduate-friendly primer, the concepts, methods, and skills offered can be applied across the disciplines.

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Chapter 1  Persuading with Numbers: The Role Of Quantitative Information In Technical Writing ... 1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

What Is Technical Writing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

What Is Rhetoric? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Rhetoric of Quantitative Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

What Are Quantitative Literacy and Reasoning? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Defining Quantitative Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Defining Quantitative Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Role of Quantitative Literacy in Technical Writing . . . . . . . . . 11

Real Life Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Current Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Future Careers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Quantitative Literacy Supports Effective Technical Writing . . . . . . 13

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Reading Check Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Reflection Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 2  Reading: Understanding and Evaluating Quantitative Information... 19

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Quantitative Literacy as Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Quantitative Literacy as Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Skills for Reading Quantitative Information Critically . . . . . . . . . . 25

Developing a Fact Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Writing Skills: Description and Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Rhetorical Skills in Action: An Exercise in Active Reading of Quantitative Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Paraphrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Words for Interpreting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Three Major Misunderstandings to Interpreting Quantitative Information .35

Selective Reporting, or Omission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Creative Reporting, or Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Emotional Reporting, or Exaggeration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Reading Check Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Statistical Resources for Creating Fact Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Appendix A: Sample Student Infographic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Chapter 3: Researching: Creating Research Questions that Require Data ...45

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Quantitative Information: Research as Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Quantitative Information for Personal Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Quantitative Information for Professional Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Quantitative Information for Academic Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Information . . 51

Developing Research Questions That Require Quantitative Information . . . . . 53

Developing a Research Question or Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Steps for Developing a Research Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Developing a Research Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Deciding When Students Need Qualitative and/or

Quantitative Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Reading Check Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Appendix A: Sample Student Research Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Chapter 4  Writing: Basic Concepts for Using Surveys to Gather Information ....71

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

A Process for Gathering Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Gathering Preliminary Data to Outline the Scope of a Problem . . 74

Shifting, Narrowing, or Broadening the (Re)Search . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Identifying Bias, Acknowledging Validity, and Ensuring Reliability . . . . . 76

Reviewing Research Process and Data Analysis to Account for Ethical Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Principles for Gathering Quantitative Information: Sampling, Reliability, and Validity .... 78

Spotlight Case: Vaccines Cause Autism? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Spotlight Case: Sampling Problems in Wakefield’s Study . . . . . . . . 83

Reliability of Inference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Spotlight: Non-Replication of Results in Follow-Up Studies . . . . . . 84

Validity of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Spotlight: Association Is Not Cause-Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Designing Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Writing Clear, Valid Survey Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Sampling and Response Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Survey Design and Margin of Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Types of Questions Used in a Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Types of Information Gathered from Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Strategies for Integrating Quantitative Information in Reports . . . 94

Aristotelian Artistic Appeals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Writing Accurate, Specific Sentences That Include

Quantitative Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Reading Check Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Appendix A: Student Description of Her Research Process . . . . . 103

Appendix B: Student Experience on Creating Surveys . . . . . . . . . 107

Appendix C: Sample Student’s Research Summary and

Progress Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Appendix D: Coding: Converting Qualitative Data from

Interviews to Quantitative Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Appendix E: Sample Student’s Recommendation Report

Where Interviews Were Converted to Quantitative Data . . . . . 118

Chapter 5  Visualizing: Representing Quantitative Information Effectively and Persuasively ....127

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Visual or Graphic Displays of Quantitative Information . . . . . . . .129

Explanatory Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Exploratory Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Reasons for Using Visual Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Processing Power of the Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Visual Tools for Generating Schema and Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Meaning-Making Power of Visuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Important Information to Communicate Visually . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Spotlight: Decontextualized Data Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Spotlight: Three Contexts for Comparison of Data . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Types of Visual Representations for Conveying Quantitative Data . . . . . . . . .142

Showing Relationships in Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Comparing Among Items or Over Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Displaying Distribution of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Highlighting Components of Data That Form a Composition . . 145

Deciding on the Type of Visual Display for Audience and Purpose . . . . . . . 146

Describing the Visual Display in a Brief Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Not Prioritizing Aesthetics in Visual Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Reading Check Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Extended Exercises for Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Appendix A: Sample Student Recommendation Report . . . . . . . 157

Index ... 171

Sue Hum is associate professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She specializes in quantitative literacy and visual rhetoric in technical and professional writing contexts. Her research also includes critical race studies, particularly viewing practices connected to race and ethnicity. In these three areas, she has authored scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and books. Her publications have appeared in journals, including College English, JAC: Journal of Advanced Composition, and Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (JAEPL). In addition to Persuading with Numbers: A Primer for Engaging Quantitative Information (Kona Publishing & Media Group, 2017), she has two coauthored anthologies: Ways of Seeing, Ways of Speaking (with Kristie Fleckenstein and Linda Calendrillo, Parlor Press, 2007) and Relations, Locations, Positions: Composition Theory for Writing Teachers (with Peter Vandenberg and Jennifer Clary-Lemon, National Council of Teachers of English Press, 2006).

When she is not teaching or writing, she is building the technical writing and rhetoric/composition curriculum. She has previously served as the Assistant Dean of Assessment and the Quality Enhancement Plan in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts. In 2015, she received the President’s Distinguished Award for Core Curriculum Teaching.