If you are writing about data, you have a choice to make: singular or plural. Singular: The data is so persuasive that only one conclusion is possible. Plural: The data are so persuasive that only one conclusion is possible. Both are correct, depending on the audience Colloquially, most people speak about “data” as a singular…
There are two kinds of research: primary research and secondary research. Primary research means finding new facts that have never been published before. Secondary research means finding facts that were already published. Nonfiction books that matter almost always include primary research, because otherwise the book is just a rehash. It’s very hard to draw startling…
Trump now says hospitals should send patient information to a database in the Department of Health and Human Services, bypassing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This will doubtless be followed by complaints about it being bad data, after which they’ll cut off access to the data — data which at the CDC was publicly…
I was privileged to work with the authors of an amazing book last year: Data Leverage: Unlocking the Surprising Growth Potential of Data Partnerships, by Christian Ward and James J. Ward. The reason I call this book amazing is that it answers a fundamental question I’d never considered before: What is the value of all…
To make decisions, our politicians need data that only the government can collect. Political tampering with that data marks the beginning of the end for fact-based policy — and for a nation claiming to serve the needs of the people. Imaginary facts are bad enough. Cooked statistics are much worse. For me, the most disturbing headline in…
Does clear writing make you vulnerable, or boost your career? According the business writers I asked, it’s more likely to help than hurt you. And the older you get, the bolder you get. When I surveyed 547 business writers early this year, I asked whether they agreed with the following two statements: I make a strong,…
What’s wrong with your writing? If you think it’s too long, you’re probably right. While you may not realize you have organization and clarity problems, your readers do. Early this year, I surveyed 547 business writers (details below*). This is my first post about the data from that survey. One question I asked was this: In…
I miss data. I love data and I can do great stuff with it. When I started at Forrester, we had no consumer data. Then Bill Bluestein challenged me to come up with a consumer segmentation. We used that segmentation, Technographics, to build our first consumer surveys. We entered an awesome world in which you could find…