June 30, 2015

13 members of the Politboro voted for the proposal. (The committee has 25 members.)

The decision was made by one man – President Xin Jinping

Today, a quart of milk costs 13 RMB. Last year, it costs 10 RMB.

In China, 100% of children go to school. In India, 78% of children go to school.

‘Apples to apples,’ not ‘apples to oranges’

China has 197 billionairesThailand has 11 billionairesWhy is that a bad comparison?

China has 197 billionaires out of 1.4 billion people (137 billionaires for every 1 billion population)

Thailand has 11 billionaires out of68 million people (161 billionaires for every 1 billion population)

Journalism majors make up __%of Xiamen University’s total students

There are 1,200 journalism majorsXiamen U. has 18,000 total students

1,200 / 18,000 = .07 (or 7%)‘Percent’ means ‘of 100’Most common rate

When something is rare (and the percent would be too small, like0.004% − which is really 0.00004)

Then, multiple result by a bigger ‘base’ (such as 100,000 or 1 billion)

Instead of 0.00004, say 4 of every 100,000

No more than 3 numbers in a paragraph (including dates)

Round off numbersInterpret numbers – try to use

only words (‘increased’ or ‘decreased’)

… went from 51 to 106 …… more than doubled …… 13 of the 36 students … … a third of the students… rose 98.7 percent …… nearly doubled

… increased 200 percent …… tripled… 12.5 percent of the voters …… one in eight voters U.S. textbooks cost 600 percent more than Chinese textbooks.

U.S. textbooks cost 7 times what Chinese textbooks cost.