1 / 6

Skills for Reading Quantitative Information

Skills for Reading Quantitative Information. Don’t skip the data! In fact, you should look for the data and question it. Watch for weasel words (some, many, a lot, little, etc.) instead of providing real data. Use estimation skills to make sense of numbers. Examples:

dobry
Download Presentation

Skills for Reading Quantitative Information

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Skills for Reading Quantitative Information

  2. Don’t skip the data! In fact, you should look for the data and question it. • Watch for weasel words (some, many, a lot, little, etc.) instead of providing real data. • Use estimation skills to make sense of numbers. Examples: • If no comparison is given, make a mental comparison: “half as much”, “increased by 50%” • Compare numbers to something familiar: “10,000 people” is about two-and-a-half times the FLC student body.

  3. The Comparison Watch List (the examples used in the following list are taken from Statistical Literacy by Milo Shield) • What is the reference value? Be suspicious if the reference value is missing or incomplete. Examples: • “More doctors like Crest toothpaste. More than what? More than any other toothpaste? More than all other toothpastes put together? More than nurses like Crest?” • “Students in two-year colleges have the greatest difficulty with quantitative literacy. Compared to what?”

  4. Do not confuse more with most. Examples: • “More doctors like Crest doesn’t mean most doctors like Crest. Perhaps 12% of doctors like Crest, 8% like Colgate, and 80% have no opinion • No better value does not mean ‘best value’ especially if things are being sold at the same price.”

  5. Beware of implied comparisons. Example: • “Families that pray together stay together. This implies, but does not assert, that families that don’t pray together don’t stay together.

More Related