Statistics: Concepts and Controversies (10th Edition)

There are books on statistical theory and books on statistical methods. This is neither. It is a book on statistical ideas and statistical reasoning and on their relevance to public policy and to the human sciences from medicine to sociology. We have included many elementary graphical and numerical techniques to give flesh to the ideas and muscle to the reasoning. Students learn to think about data by working with data. We have not, however, allowed technique to dominate concepts. Our intention is to teach verbally rather than algebraically, to invite discussion and even argument rather than mere computation, though some computation remains essential. The coverage is considerably broader than one might traditionally cover in a one-term course, as the table of contents reveals. In the spirit of general education, we have preferred breadth to detail.

Despite its informal nature, SCC is a textbook. It is organized for systematic study and has abundant exercises, many of which ask students to offer a discussion or make a judgment. Even those admirable individuals who seek pleasure in uncompelled reading should look at the exercises as well as the text. Teachers should be aware that the book is more serious than its low mathematical level suggests. The emphasis on ideas and reasoning asks more of the reader than many recipe-laden methods texts.