Jessica Polito
The Language of Comparisons: Communicating about Percentages
Wellesley College
comparisons percentages rates appear frequently journalism advertising essential component quantitative writing many students fail understand precisely percentages mean lack fluency language used comparisons reviewing evidence demonstrating weakness experiencebased perspective lays framework teaching language comparisons structured way illustrates several authentic examples exemplify mistaken misleading uses numbers framework includes three common types erroneous misleading quantitative writing missing comparison key number omitted applestopineapples comparison two subtly incomparable rates presented implied fallacy invalid quantitative conclusion left reader infer