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Statistical Persuasion
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Statistical Persuasion
How to Collect, Analyze, and Present Data...Accurately, Honestly, and Persuasively



January 2010 | 424 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
This text helps readers understand how to collect, manage, evaluate, and analyze data. It also provides guidelines for the presentation of analysis, especially for nonacademic audiences without training in statistical analysis. These guidelines help ensure that statistics and graphical displays tell the story that analysts want to convey while protecting their analysis from methodological criticism. Author Robert Pearson focuses attention on the conceptual understanding of statistics, while referring (sparingly) to specific formulas when they help reveal a conceptual point about the statistics.

Key Features

· Combines a concern for the design, collection, measurement, and the management of data with its analysis and presentation

· Provides examples and data concerning real world problems in education, crime, government performance, and other policy arenas

· Clearly demonstrates the steps used to generate the appropriate statistics and graphs in Excel and SPSS and then provides exercises to replicate and elaborate on these examples

This book and its supporting materials are ideally suited for graduate students in professional degree programs in public policy, education, social work, criminology, urban planning, and related schools as well as advanced undergraduates in these fields. The book's explanations, descriptions, illustrations, and step-by-step exercises create the skills and knowledge required of a policy analyst, advisor, consultant or the elected or appointed public official or nonprofit officer who wants to be better able to interpret and evaluate others' applied social research. Its data sets, solutions sets, instructors' manual, lecture slides, and student workbook provide instructors with a complete and fully integrated instructional package.

 
PREFACE
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
1. Introduction
 
2. Research Design and Data Collection
 
3. Measurement
 
4. Data Editing, Transformation, Index Construction, and Weights
 
5. Statistics as Description
 
6. Charts and Graphs
 
7. Percentages and Contingency Tables
 
8. Samples and Statistical Inference
 
9. Statistics as Group Differences
 
10. Statistics as Relationships
 
11. Regression Analysis
 
12. Detecting and Correcting Violations of Regression Assumptions
 
13. Time Series Analysis, Program Assessment, and Forecasting
 
14. Presenting Persuasive Statistical Analyses
 
APPENDIX A: FROM WHENCE DO DATA COME? KEY STATISTICAL SITES FROM THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
 
APPENDIX B: HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT STATISTICS
 
APPENDIX C: IN-CLASS QUESTIONNAIRE
 
REFERENCES

“I am very impressed with Statistical Persuasion, by Dr. Robert W. Pearson. The textbook includes the technical and mathematical knowledge students need to understand basic statistics, and it also includes an integration of these elements within the important framework of research design. The combination of the textbook and ancillary support materials is a complete package.”

 

Kristen A. Munger
Syracuse University

"Statistical Persuasion will serve well those who are looking for a practical and pragmatic approach to using and interpreting statistics for applied purposes. This book would best serve as a text for a capstone course in statistics where the focus is on the presentation and consumption of statistical outcomes. It does an excellent job convincing the reader of the importance of designing a study tailored to the needs of a social science question so that the resulting findings can meaningfully answer the question."

Jacqueline J. Carlson & Andrew N. Christopher
PsycCRITQUES

Although an excellent and interesting read, the book was not suitable for the module I teach on. Excellent read though!

Miss Elizabeth Selina Green
Business and Law, University of the West Of England
June 9, 2015

Pretty decent coverage of key statistical concepts

Mr Andrew Palmer
School of Business and Social Sciences, Roehampton University
February 16, 2013

I did not adopt this but recommend it to everyone that I talk ot and all of my students. This is a wonderful book.

Ms Kristen Sethares
Adult and Child Nursing, University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth
October 5, 2012

While the book lacks considerable detail on the numeric details involved with both descriptive and inferential statistics, it does do a good job on data collection and the presentation of results.

Mr Daniel Smialek
Center for Professional Studies, Keuka College
May 24, 2012

Not assigned to teach course

Dr Mary Lou Gutierrez
School of Public Health, University of Memphis
May 15, 2012

The book is probably too intimidating to adotpted as an essential read for undergraduates. However it persuasively argues for the appropriate use of statistical tools within research. It would be useful to include more on liklihood ratios and a more comprehensive index.

Ms Anna Davenport
Materials Science Research Centre, Glyndwr University
December 5, 2011

Not appropriate for the class in mind

Professor Bev Carlsen-Landy
Sociology Social Work Dept, Texas Woman's University
October 26, 2011

Readability, comprehensive, Online content, data sets, use of Excel and SPSS.

Dr Judith Halle
School of Graduate Studies, Mountain State University
October 5, 2011

Robert W. Pearson

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ISBN: 9781412974967
$240.00

SAGE Research Methods is a research methods tool created to help researchers, faculty and students with their research projects. SAGE Research Methods links over 175,000 pages of SAGE’s renowned book, journal and reference content with truly advanced search and discovery tools. Researchers can explore methods concepts to help them design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, conduct their research, and write up their findings. Since SAGE Research Methods focuses on methodology rather than disciplines, it can be used across the social sciences, health sciences, and more.