In this post we think about how a writer describes percentages so that the reader is always able to answer the question ‘percent of what?’. (more…)
Recently I was telling students that for certain statistics, generic labels like number and amount might not be suitable, for example when you’re writing about employment. Then today I saw this up-beat news item from the BBC, which contains some nice examples of ’employment speak’! (more…)
Women having a first child was low in both years (1995 and 2005).
Women was low(?!) Here we have some subject/verb disagreement, and so I’m guessing that it was actually a different singular countable noun that was low, and not ‘women‘! (more…)
The percentage of Australians holding a maths, science, or computing degree raised quite significantly from 10 to 18.
It’s an easy mistake to make. There are 2 verbs with similar meanings. One is transitive (must have an object), the other intransitive (no object). (more…)
The graph illustrates information about the results of a poll of theatregoers regarding disturbances during theatre performances. In general the 4 most disturbing problems are coughing, rustling sweet papers, whispering and arriving late. Their percentages stand at above 50% (more…)
AAS students which have just about 37% students, submit assignments on time.
You seem to be saying that AAS students are not completely AAS students – 63% of each AAS student is not an AAS student!? (more…)