TycheManual:Contextualizing

“57% of my city’s <X’s> are <O’s>”

“So what?”

As data storytellers we can help our readers understand if certain data points are meaningful, extraordinary and/or merely aligned with a norm. We do this by bringing in comparisons. Where possible, introduce comparisons that help to inform:

• Compare your data and findings against a neighboring community or communities
• Compare your data and findings against nationwide or statewide statistics
• Compare your data and findings against industry or non-public data benchmarks
• Contrast the current year(s) of data against past years’ data to understand trends and directional change (or lack thereof)
• Contrast your data and findings against public statements or goals set out on the topic.

Next: Writing your data story