Communication Tips

Making Facts and Figures Memorable

The skilled communicator knows how to present facts and figures in a dynamic and memorable way.

The secret: link facts and figures to something familiar to your listener.

Examples

• Mowing your lawn burns 450 calories, about the same as playing tennis for an hour
• A hive of bees flies 55,000 miles to bring you one pound of honey

Think Visually

• The number of crayons produced last year would go around the world 4½ times
• The length of zippers produced last year would reach from the earth to the moon

Sometimes you give the "dry" numbers first, then conclude by linking them to something familiar

• Each year, on average, children between the ages of four and eight see 250 episodes of war or crime-related cartoons, and over 1000 thirty-second commercials for war toys. This is equivalent to 22 days of classroom instruction each year in pro-violence entertainment

Helping people relate to numbers can create a dramatic effect

• Four thousand North Americans suffer heart attacks each day, one every twenty seconds
• In the time it takes to finish reading this sentence, four tyres (tires) will have been discarded somewhere in North America

NOTE: For topics that usually include lots of numbers (financial projections, computer data, scientific results), don't try to make every number memorable. It would be pointless, and probably impossible. Simply identify the numbers of greatest importance, and link them to something familiar for your listeners.

Also, be careful not to blow numbers out of proportion, or twist facts into falsehoods. You want them memorable and accurate.

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