How small is small? One-third the size of a ladybug? The size of a sprinkle on an ice cream cone?

Analogy, metaphor, simile and other comparisons can help your readers “see” the size and scale you’re communicating.

Here’s how:

1. Help readers see.

A J-school friend of mine, The Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin Helliker, used that approach in his Pulitzer Prize-winning explanatory series on aneurysms:

OK, now I see it.

2. Ask, “What’s it like?”

In A Perfect Red, Amy Butler Greenfield describes her topic, cochineal, thus:

When you use adjectives like “voracious” and “quite small,” make sure your reader can see what that looks like. How voracious is “voracious”? “Quite small” says one thing; “one-third the size of a ladybug” says something entirely different.

3. Ask, “How big is big?”

In the movie “Armageddon,” the president’s staff is briefing the leader of the free world about the giant asteroid that’s hurling toward earth.

Just how big is it? the president asks.

260,000 square miles and change, the team answers.

Finally, Billy Bob Thornton’s character steps in: “It’s the size of Texas, Mr. President,” he says.

Which means more: “261,797 square miles”? Or “the size of Texas”?

Turn numbers into things for easier understanding.

4. Add a zero.

What’s the difference between 10 and 10 billion?

Modern designers Charles and Ray Eames answered that question by zooming from a picnicker in a Chicago park out to the galaxies above him and back into the microscopic world inside his hand.

It’s an object lesson in communicating scale through analogy. And you can see it firsthand in Powers of Ten — the flipbook, the movie or the book.

5. Ask, “How small is small?”

When the late, great Kansas City Star columnist C.W. Gusewelle wanted to help readers understand the fragility of monarch butterflies as they migrate south for the winter, he wrote:

I don’t know whether I appreciate the analogy more or the four decimal points of precision!

Both make the point: It’s not enough just to communicate the numbers. You also need to help readers see them.

6. Put it in their pocket.

In Demon in the Freezer, Richard Preston’s amazing book about smallpox, the author uses comparison to help readers see size and scale, too:

How small is small? The size of jimmy on an ice-cream cone.

Need to convey size and scale? Show your reader how small or large your number is through comparison.

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Source: Kevin Helliker and Thomas M. Burton, “The Battle of the Bulge: Aneurysm Tests Could Save A Lot of Lives, if Performed,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 13, 2003

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When 6,000 power poles went down in New Orleans during a series of ice storms, Entergy Senior Communications Specialist David Lewis needed a way to make that number tangible in an executive speech.

So he bought 6,000 wooden kitchen matchsticks and put them in a clear plastic container. Then he had the speaker display the matches when making his point about the broken poles.

One thing I really like about Lewis’ approach is that he synced his analogy with his subject.

The best metaphors “match” the topic. Matches conceptually go with power outages, and matchsticks are the shape of power poles.

Need to illustrate a big number? Find a way to help audience members visualize it. Big numbers don’t mean anything without a comparison.

How high is high?

When Kevin Helliker and Thomas Burton wrote their Pulitzer Prize-winning series about aneurysms in the aortic artery for The Wall Street Journal, they needed to explain how weightlifting affected blood pressure. They wrote:

The power of zero

When Tim Rush, a PR pro at Snapp Norris Group, needed to explain a big number, he asked his subject matter expert to illustrate the difference between a million and a billion.

One million seconds is about 12 days, Rush was able to report. One billion seconds is about 32 years.

Illustrate the difference some zeros make.

How many steps in a Krispy Kreme?

“Food Court” — Men’s Health’s data bit on caloric crimes — recently featured this item:

Yikes!

Two techniques to steal from this passage:

1. Compare big numbers(1,140 calories) to something else (marching up a temple’s steps 15 times) to help readers understand them.
2. Bring consequences homeby putting the reader in the scenario and writing directly to “you.”

And please … don’t pass the Krispy Kremes.

Give numbers context.

“Numbers without context, especially large ones with many zeros trailing behind, are about as intelligible as vowels without consonants,” writes Daniel Okrent, former New York Times ombudsman.

Don’t make your message so hard. Give readers context along with their statistics. Turn numbers into things. Ask, “What’s it like?”

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Which personal finance story would draw you in? One that starts:

Or one with this lead, from Northern Update, the marketing magazine of Northern Funds:

The latter? Me, too.

Name names and number numbers. Draw attention to your message and prove your points with numerical detail.

1. How big is big?

Show readers size and scale with statistics and comparison.

Here’s a before example, the lead of a content marketing piece a client sent me to edit:

There’s a number in there, but it’s not used to build the story, set the scene or make a point. Here’s the after, this time with more statistical evidence to make a point about the client’s project:

2. How small is small?

So how small is small? Is it the size of a thumbnail? An iPhone? A toaster? A backpack? A car?

Help readers see size and scale with comparison.

In this before, the client had included a laptop analogy, but buried it further in the story:

But if the whole point is size, lead with that. Here’s my rewrite:

How wet is wet?

If your point is “prone to flooding,” then make that point statistically. Here’s another before, from that same client:

OK, my basement is prone to flooding, too. But how wet is wet? Here’s my rewrite, supplemented with 6 minutes of online research:

Add concrete detail with statistics.

Startling statistics are amongst more than 6 types of concrete material to try.

“If you want to be credible, be specific,” writes Doug Williams, a principal in Tomasini-W2K. “Heinz doesn’t have a ‘multitude’ of varieties; it has 57. Bressler’s doesn’t have a ‘whole lot’ of flavors; it has 33. There aren’t ‘many’ deadly sins; there are seven.

“Well, eight, if you count vague writing.”

How can you make your message more colorful and credible with statistics?

What questions do you have about using statistics in your message?

Learn more about writing with statistics.

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