HOME-ARP Data

Here are Some Helpful Tips on Writing Data Stories

By: Jonathan Reichental, Award-Winning Technology Leader

Use the right data

• Is the data too old?
• Is your interpretation open to question?
• Is this the right data and the complete data to tell your story?

Synthesize

• Use a combination of data sets, contemporary ideas, history, and other characteristics to reach some conclusions
• One quality may not be enough to successfully tell a story
• For example, if the story that is being told is about how something has changed over a period of time, we may want to use historical data that is then contrasted with current data. 

Make it personal and real

• Easily communicate complex information through a narrative (stories and visualizations)
• If it is abstract and relies too heavily on hypotheticals, it won't resonate with many people - use a structured approach to communicate an important insight
• For example - transportation issues. Rather than information about Atlanta, keep the data story exclusively connected to the city that the data belongs to.  And add additional impact by illustrating the consequences of that data on an individual family in that community

Overquestion the data

• Be sure your data is telling the right story in the right way, so it is heard and understood
   

Helpful Sites for Data