What Can ‘csi’ Teach Us about Statistical Literacy?

What do the hit television show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and statistical literacy have in common? Both involve using technical information as evidence in an inquiry, asking whether the scientific or numeric facts support a particular hypothesis. In this paper, I show how to apply standard expository writing techniques to quantitative writing: introducing the topic or question, describing individual facts in context, and finally relating the entire body of evidence back to the original question. I explain how to step back from the procedural details of conducting forensic chemistry tests or calculating inferential statistics to reveal how those results answer the question under study. I demonstrate several basic principles for effective quantitative communication, integrating numeric information with good expository writing. Using these guidelines, statisticians and other quantitative writers will learn to conduct and present a coherent statistical inquiry.