Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

When asked about writing a captivating story by International Paper, Kurt Vonnegut (author of novels such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions) outlined the following tips, which I’ve excerpted from his short article, “How to Write with Style” (a great quick read): Find a subject you care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. Do not ramble, though. Keep it simple. Great masters wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. “To be or not to be?” asks Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The longest word is three letters. Have the guts to cut. If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out. Sound like yourself. I myself find that I trust my own writing most, and others seem to trust it most, too, when I sound most like a person from Indianapolis, which is what I am. Say what you meant to say. If I broke all the rules of punctuation, had words mean whatever I wanted them to mean, and strung them together higgledy-piggledy, I would simply not be understood. Pity the readers. Our audience requires us to be sympathetic and patient teachers, ever willing to simplify and clarify. This advice contains a number of gems that we can apply in the context of storytelling. Keep it simple. Edit ruthlessly. Be authentic. Don’t communicate for yourself—communicate for your audience. The s...

My blog is a personal journal dedicafted to self-reflection. But perhaps I can gain the same benefits by writing for others.