Numbers are stories, too

You’re presenting the numbers. You know what you want to say. But all around you brows begin to wrinkle and eyes gently glaze over. They’re not following the highs and lows of the line graphs. They’re not eating up the pie charts. In fact, they really don’t know what to make of any of it.

What do you do? Tell them what they can already see, or help them find the story behind the statistics?

Good decision.

Who’s it for?

Numbers people who are trying to reach words people. And words people who are grappling with writing about numbers.

Whether you’re writing a case study, an annual report or presenting your figures to the board, this session will help your readers make sense of the data and know what to do with it.

What’s it about?

In this one-day workshop we’ll look at techniques for simplifying lengthy data to focus on the things that really matter. We’ll find ways to talk about the numbers without repeating the numbers. And we’ll steal framing techniques from psychologists, as well as persuasive techniques from columnists, to give your analysis a little more heart.

What will I get out of it?

At the end of the course, you’ll be able to:

• think like a reader, not a statistician
• find the stories behind the stats, to go beyond ‘saying what you see’
• use a bit of psychology to frame your data
• use storytelling techniques to make your messages really hit home. 

How long is it?

One day.

How do I book?

If you’d like us to run a workshop for your team, drop us a line at thewriteracademy@thewriter.com or give us a call in the UK on +44 (0) 20 7940 7540, or call us in the US on + 1 646 517 2988. It costs £2,500 in the UK and $4000 in the US. We highly recommend workshops of no more than 12 people.