Beginning Statistics
An Introduction for Social Scientists
- Liam Foster - Sheffield University, UK
- Ian Diamond - UK National Statistician
- Julie Banton - Freelance Academic
Chapters address the following questions:
- Why bother learning statistics in the first place and are they relevant to real life?
- How do I make sensible tables and informative graphs?
- What are descriptive and inferential statistics and how are they used?
- What are regression and correlation anyway?
The authors of Beginning Statistics have written an ideal text for those students who are unfamiliar with and often petrified about statistical analysis. They have written a book that is comprehensive and which is made accessible by a writing style that eases the reader through explanations of complex ideas and uses lots of examples and exercises to facilitate understanding. They should be congratulated for writing such a clear but rigorous book.
This book very neatly steps from definition to worked example and interpretation with the writing lively and clear. The first edition has been my ‘go to’ jargon buster textbook whenever I or a student need statistical language or calculations explaining transparently and I welcome the second edition with its updated examples.
Simple, brilliant, thoroughly entertaining – a logical and succinct introduction to essential social statistics pitched at the right level for beginners. The latest edition has several extended spotlights including a comprehensive annotation of statistics and its application in the real ‘big data’ world, illustrative examples based on recent data, and most of all reflective learning outcomes for each chapter. I am convinced that this book is an indispensable resource for all under- and post-graduate students and social science researchers, highly recommended!
This is a good solid book that introduces the topic well. Student feedback is mainly positive - some swear by the book, while others don't find it engaging enough. The second edition is far stronger than the first.
A very nicely structured and accessible introduction that can serve as an excellent resource for teaching research methods at Undergraduate level and beyond.
Getting pre-registration nursing students to understand statistics is a challenge - for the ones who get it and want to understand more, this is a book that I will recommend for ease of reading and presentation. However, for some students it would still be too complex.
It's a good book, especially for students who have no knowledge of statistics. I found it useful and students like it as well
This book was recommended to be used from September 2015 onwards. It is good, comprehensive and students will be able to understand it in terms of the terminology easily explained. A book that will help students to consider statistics not as a matter of fear to deal with
Whilst this is a useful book for the introduction of statistics it is missing the application of the statistical computer packages which most researchers will be using to analyse their data.
This is a good book students can use for self leaning. The first chapter might be more interesting if some old photo's or illustrations
