Coming into this course and not knowing a ton about data, especially as it is related to journalism, being able to have these articles to read has been extremely helpful in gathering an understanding of how important data is in the world of journalism. I’ve learn so many things throughout reading these different pieces of information. Two of the things that stuck out to me the most in these readings came from the “How to avoid 10 common mistakes in data reporting” article.

One of the most important things that is discussed is not to overestimate the power of the numbers. Just because they are numbers and seem untouchable, the data is still collected by humans, who often make mistakes. It’s not to say that every data set is going to have errors, but it is saying that you need to check your sources and make sure that the numbers you are working with are coming from a credible place.

Another thing that was talked about in the article, and something that Professor Wells has also stressed to us, is the importance of saving your work frequently. One power outage or dead computer could lead to hours of work lost. Always make sure you’re saving your work after each big change, while also making sure you keep an original copy just in case you need to reference back to it at any point throughout your data and story process.