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Browse all the articles in some newspaper for one day. (The USA Today is a particularly good one for this exercise, but you may use any reasonably-sized newspaper. Whatever paper you use, give its name and date.) Count the number of articles that use some sort of numerical data—perhaps even a statistical analysis of that data—in justifying certain conclusions. Would these articles be less convincing without such data? Do any of the articles seem to draw conclusion beyond what the data supports? Summarize both the best (most appropriate use of data) and the worst articles you find, and explain what you think is or is not appropriate about how data was used. Do you think our society increasingly requires numerical data in order to make a good case for one's conclusions? If so, what are the positive and negative aspects of such a trend?
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