Translating Qualitative & Quantitative Details - A New Galaxy

Scientific writing utilizes words, numbers and visual representations to convey information about a topic. 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 to prove what the qualitative information is saying. Visual representations help the reader gain a deeper understanding of the topic by displaying multiple pieces of information and the relationships between these pieces of information in a condensed format.

To be an effective reader in science, you must be able to read for, understand and translate between all three types of information. Quantitative information, qualitative information and visual representations are all used by scientists in writing about a topic, depending on which best suits the information being conveyed. When taken together, the three types of information help readers to have a full understanding of what is being said about the topic.

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 to express information in both formats.
• Analyze a visual representation of information for quantitative data and then translate this to qualitative information.