Ellen from "Polls 'R Us" has collected lots of data on the opinions and attitudes of students on your

campus. She has been asked by your Student Senate to share some of these results in a speech.

Ellen has
asked you for advice on how she should use statistics in her speech. Write the advice you would give her.
What will be an ideal response?

The advice I would give is:

a. Do not rely exclusively on statistics. Use them sparingly in your speech. A presentation that
is riddled with statistics will eventually become redundant and confusing for your audience.
b. Round off your statistics. Keep the numbers short and simple. Long numbers have very little
impact and are often hard for your audience to remember.
c. Use units of measure that are familiar to your audience. Speak to the level of your audience.
If you mention something that is unfamiliar to your audience, place that same information in
an example that makes sense for your audience. For example, if I mentioned that my friend
won a lottery in Japan that netted him 1 million yen, most people in my audience in the
United States wouldn't know what that really means. However, a more appropriate statement
would be to mention that my friend won 1 million yen, which is the equivalent to $10,000.
Help the statistic make sense for your audience.
d. Use presentational aids to represent or clarify relationships among statistics. Charts and
graphs are the best means to quantify statistics in a visual format. This helps your audience to
better comprehend those statistics.
e. Stress the impact of large numbers. If your statistics are large, staggering figures, take the
time to nail down the impact of those figures for your audience. This places emphasis and
importance on those numbers, which also makes them more memorable in the minds of your
audience.