science

The Upshot

The Upshot is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Upshot rather than just read about it. In short: The Upshot is a website published by The New York Times which releases articles combining data visualization with conventional journalistic analysis of news. History The Upshot was first announced in March 2014 and was officially launched on April 22, 2014.

Key takeaways

The Upshot belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Upshot to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Upshot from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Upshot is a website published by The New York Times which releases articles combining data visualization with conventional journalistic analysis of news.

History The Upshot was first announced in March 2014 and was officially launched on April 22, 2014. Steve Duenes, a graphics director at the New York Times, won a newsroom contest by coming up with the name "The Upshot". The site started with fifteen full-time staff, including founding editor David Leonhardt. Because The Upshot was launched soon after Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight left the Times, it was widely described as a planned replacement for FiveThirtyEight and Silver. However, Leonhardt stated in an April 2014 interview that The Upshot was not intended to replace Silver. In 2014, The Upshot produced two of the twenty most-read stories on the Times' website, and it was responsible for 5% of the paper's web traffic in October of that year. Also in 2014, the site was a finalist for an Online Journalism Award in the category "Online Commentary, Large Newsroom", but it lost to NPR's Code Switch. In 2016, Amanda Cox, who had been a founding member of The Upshot, replaced Leonhardt as its editor.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Upshot

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Upshot claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Upshot before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Upshot ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Upshot

In research: The Upshot appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Upshot in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Upshot is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2014 establishments in New York City, American news websites, Data journalism, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Upshot outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “The Upshot” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study The Upshot in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Upshot means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Upshot out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Upshot in simple terms?

The Upshot is a website published by The New York Times which releases articles combining data visualization with conventional journalistic analysis of news. History The Upshot was first announced in March 2014 and was officially launched on April 22, 2014.

Why does The Upshot matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Upshot?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Upshot.