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In recent years there has been a marked increase in the teaching and application of statistics. A generation ago the subject was rarely taught in schools and very little in universities. Nowadays every school child learns at least some descriptive statistics within the mathematics syllabus; nearly all A-level mathematics courses now contain some probability and statistics topics which for many students, comprise the applied part of their syllabus. In addition, many other subjects, such as geography and biology require some knowledge of statistical techniques from their A-level students. At the tertiary level, the importance of statistical evidence is now accepted by virtually all academic disciplines and there are relatively few science or social science subjects which do not require knowledge of the subject. The increasing use of data bases allows easy access to data and the use of computers takes much of the tedium out of complex calculations.
At the same time public awareness of the subject has increased. For example, it is now expected that when the result of an opinion poll is announced the sample size should be given. Statistical terms, such as parameter and correlation have found their way into everyday English, often used incorrectly.
This rapid growth of the subject means that many people are now using it with a somewhat limited theoretical or mathematical background and it is hoped that such people, be they at work, school or university will find this book particularly helpful.
The context of the Dictionary has been selected to cover the needs not only of those taking statistics as part of A-level, or similar, mathematics courses but also of those learning it as a service subject at the tertiary level. 'While its format is superficially like that of a traditional dictionary, it differs in a number of respects. Many of the entries are encyclopedic in treatment and include many worked examples. These illustrate how the various statistical measures are calculated and the tests applied. Most of these examples use artificial data; real data is usually more difficult to work with and can easily obscure the point being made. The text is illustrated throughout with diagrams and graphs to aid the reader. Considerable effort has been made to ensure that the information in this book is accessible to its readers. Care has been taken to avoid using terminology that is likely to cause difficulty to the reader of any particular entry. The simpler the subject of an entry, the easier the language and notation used within it. On the other hand, more advanced topics can often only be understood in terms of easier ones and so there is something of a hierarchy among the entries. There is cross-referencing throughout the book, indicated by the use of SMALL CAPITALS.
The conventions used are those in common usage at the time of writing. Greek letters refer to parent population parameters, Roman letters to sample statistics. Capital letters are used for variable names, lower case for values of those variables. A full list of symbols is included in Appendix A while Appendix B is a list of formulae. The tables in Appendix Care those needed for the tests and techniques described within the book.
The HarperCollins Dictionary of Statistics. Copyright © by Roger Porkess. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Excerpted from The HarperCollins Dictionary of Statistics by Roger Porkess
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