Translating Qualitative & Quantitative Details: Climate Change

Writing about topics in science requires the use of both words and numbers. Words convey what we call qualitative information – they describe a topic or the scientific findings about the topic.  Numbers give the reader important quantitative information as evidence to prove what the qualitative information indicates. Both types of information are important for readers to have a full understanding of what is being communicated about the topic.

To be an effective reader in science, you must be able to read for, understand, and translate both types of information.  Sometimes, information has a greater impact on the reader if it is expressed using a qualitative statement that contains strong language.  However, these qualitative statements must be supported by quantitative facts.  Sometimes, quantitative statements have an even stronger impact than qualitative ones.

Module Objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Read a scientific text for both quantitative and qualitative information.
• Translate qualitative and quantitative information expressed in both formats.
• Analyze a visual representation of information for quantitative data and then translate the qualitative information into words.