What’s in a number? This section looks at how you can incorporate statistical data into the body of a speech to help support your overall message. The right statistics can make your argument watertight; the wrong ones can drown your story. The savvy speaker will use numbers to illustrate and prove a point without overwhelming the audience with too much qualitative information.

In addition to considering which kinds of data will best support your claims, this section will address how to make your data comprehensible to an audience. We’ll also think about how to become a more informed consumer of data so that you can avoid taking in and passing along bad statistics.