tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post2635650932899046299..comments2024-03-28T12:59:05.739-07:00Comments on Iron Tongue of Midnight: Scientific Literacy and Copy-Editing, NY Times Blogs EditionLisa Hirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-32786434150963200912011-01-31T18:56:54.782-08:002011-01-31T18:56:54.782-08:00>>There's no such thing as 15.2 women,
...>>There's no such thing as 15.2 women, <br /><br />Sure there is. If you're talking about a rate per 1,000, you have to include decimals. For instance, 143 stillbirths out of, say, 1.5 million pregnancies would equal a rate of 0.095 per 1,000. There's no such thing as 0.095 stillbirths, but the number is meaningful because it allows you to compare different-sized populations. It's a common calculation. What doesn't make sense is figuring the rate per 1,000 and then reducing that to a percentage. You're creating a needless extra step.Joe Barronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16638252347181688694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-80878696077548261232011-01-29T16:01:37.387-08:002011-01-29T16:01:37.387-08:00I don't know how many population studies you h...I don't know how many population studies you have seen - the researchers always end up with fractions of people. You might not like it, but it's common, and the statistical reasons are well understood by people who do that kind of research. <br /><br />Belkin's error has nothing to do with fractions of people. There is a gross arithmetical error in the original. She makes an equivalence between 15.2 per thousand (1.52%) and 14.6% of one thousand. That is, between 15.2 and 146. You don't mix hard-number-per-thousand measures with percentages.<br /><br />It would be correct to say 15.2 and 14.6 per thousand OR to say 1.52% or 1.46%. Mixing the two ways of referring to the same numbers is wrong.Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-49930621675191499682011-01-29T15:42:51.714-08:002011-01-29T15:42:51.714-08:00The correction doesn't make any sense. There&...The correction doesn't make any sense. There's no such thing as 15.2 women, because there is no such thing as 0.2 of a woman. There is such a thing as 15.2% of 1000 women, however.<br /><br />Belkin's statement therefore only makes sense if there is a missing "%" after the original "15.2". Then we don't have to deal with imaginary fractional woman, <i>and</i> the rate comparison makes sense.<br /><br />So I'm not saying what Belkin erroneously originally said, and I'm not making the error you think she did - which was to incorrectly compare hard numbers with percentages. I'm saying they're <i>both</i> percentages, and that Belkin made a typo, not a lapse in reasoning.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-80495100928575962722011-01-29T05:40:59.157-08:002011-01-29T05:40:59.157-08:00Yes, 14.6 and 15.2 are very close. The error is a...Yes, 14.6 and 15.2 are very close. The error is an order of magnitude error. 15.2 out of 1,000 is 1.52%, 14.2 out of 1,000 is 1.42%, NOT 14.6%.<br /><br />14.6% of 1,000 would be 146, which isn't very close to 15.2.<br /><br />You made the same error Lisa Belkin made in her original blog posting, which I must say surprises me, especially since I give the Times's correction.Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-22814208571950263542011-01-29T00:14:15.265-08:002011-01-29T00:14:15.265-08:00I have to assume that the "howler" here ...I have to assume that the "howler" here consisted of the typographical error of the omission of a "%" sign after the "15.2". Because not only is 15.2% approximately the same as 14.6%, which would cause the second part of the sentence to make sense, if the number is a percentage it is possible to imagine 15.2% of 1,000 women seeking psychiatric help, but if the number is a hard number, it is hard to imagine 15.2 women seeking it. Who is the remaining .2 of a woman? Is she a lilliputian? Did she only get one-fifth of the way through the clinic door?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com