Strips

I know an America English Lit Prof. who argues for the legitimacy of words that are commonly misused.
She feels that because so many Americans use these words incorrectly that they now have a new meaning and are correct in the American dialect.

No. Data is a plural word for datum; more than one piece of information is data, obviously, so 'the data make' is proper, 'the data makes' is, technically, incorrect.

Of course, in American English, we grossly misuse words, so by common usage, saying 'the data makes' would also be correct.