Representing data in words: A context engineering approach

Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable potential across a broad range of applications. However, producing reliable text that faithfully represents data remains a challenge. While prior work has shown that task-specific conditioning through in-context learning and knowledge augmentation can improve performance, LLMs continue to struggle with interpreting and reasoning about numerical data. To address this, we introduce wordalisations, a methodology for generating stylistically natural narratives from data. Much like how visualisations display numerical data in a way that is easy to digest, wordalisations abstract data insights into descriptive texts. To illustrate the method's versatility, we apply it to three application areas: scouting football players, personality tests, and international survey data. Due to the absence of standardized benchmarks for this specific task, we conduct LLM-as-a-judge and human-as-a-judge evaluations to assess accuracy across the three applications. We found that wordalisation produces engaging texts that accurately represent the data. We further describe best practice methods for open and transparent development of communication about data.