Statistics Can Be Fun

By Mutea Rukwaru

The book Statistics Can Be Fun delves into the intricate balance between research and statistics. The hook is quite friendly to those with phobia for numbers. You don’t need to have an in depth background in mathematics to enjoy the work.
Statistics can he fun is:
•For those with phobia for numbers
•For students who are taking a course requiring them to write a project paper, course papers, dissertation or thesis.
•For academicians of all levels
•For policy makers, corporate world (business world), community workers, social workers, economic planners, medical sociologists and all those involved in advocacy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mutea Rukwaru
• Release date: Jun 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370721634

Mutea Rukwaru

Mutea Rukwaru is an accomplished author of international reputation.He is an author of 17 bestselling books. He has written widely in the areas of research and family. He has wide knowledge in world of practice having been in the Department of Social Development for 33 years and also being in the world of academia, that is Universities and Kenya Schools of Government.Some of the top selling books include:Anatomy of CrimeFinancial Success Every Family's DreamEducation at CrossroadTraining at its bestMilestones of lifeHow to be a better CounselorThe winning familyThe Tie that bindsHappy though marriedFundamentals of social researchWhat happy couples knowSuccessful time managementStatistics can be funStrong in the stormSnapshot view of Social ResearchSocial Research Methods a complete guidePowerful Proposal, Powerful PresentationUpcoming titles being published by Eureka publishers are: Limits of Medicine, Dreams of my Motherland and A Place to feel at HomeMutea Rukwaru holds a Masters of Arts in Sociology (Counseling) and a Bachelor of Arts (Sociology), Upper Second class honors from Nairobi University

Book preview

STATISTICS

CAN BE FUN

MUTEA RUKWARU

ISBN 978-9966-1822-9-6

OTHER BOOKS BY MUTEA RUKWARU

(In order of years of publication)

Happy though married (2003)

The Tie that Binds (2005)

Successful Time Management, the Challenge for the Modern Manager (2006)

What Happy Couples Know (2006 a)

Fundamentals of Social Research (2007)

Milestones of Life (2007 a)

How to be a Better Counsellor (2007 b)

Anatomy of Crime (2008)

Winning Family (2008 a)

Financial Success Every Family’s Dream (2008 b)

Education at Cross roads (2009)

Training at its Best (2010)

Social Research Methods : A Complete Guide (2015)

Powerful Proposal Powerful Presentation (2015a)

COPYRIGHT

Published by EUREKA PUBLISHERS

P.O BOX 1414 – 60200 MERU

Copyright Mutea Rukwaru 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher and author except for the inclusion of quotations in a review.

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ISBN 978-9966-1822-9-6

PREFACE

Statistics is very important not only in the world of academic but also in everyday life. You cannot imagine for instance a student of research ignoring statistics. Masses of figures in themselves say almost nothing. Indeed they can become extremely confusing since the human mind is incapable of consuming let alone making any meaningful interpretation of vast quantities of data.

Data collected have an important story to tell, but like the separate pieces of jigsaw puzzle they have to be properly put together to make a complete picture. But like a jigsaw, the true picture can only emerge if the pieces are put into their proper places. If one attempts to interpret the whole picture from one piece of jigsaw, it will amount to guesswork. The following quotation emphasizes the importance of statistics even in our daily lives:

If you are young, then I say:

Learn something about statistics as soon as you can. Don't miss it through ignorance or because it calls for thought. Don't pass into eternity without having examined these techniques and thought about the possibility of application in your field of work, because very likely you will find it an excellent substitute for your lack of experience in some directions. It will curb your over enthusiasm.

If you are older and already crowned with the laurels of success, see to it that those under your wing who look to you for advice are encouraged to look into this subject. In this way you will be able to reap the benefits without doing over much work yourself. Whoever you are, if your work calls for interpretation of data, you may be able to do without statistics but you would not do so well. If my efforts in this book have helped you to some measure of understanding about the subject I am sure you will thank me and forgive the bluntness of my advice. If not, then I am sorry for everything.

(A quotation from a book by M. J. Moroney (1951: 463)

Statistics is very important in the orchestra of life. Even in the 21st century, statistics will stand the test of time.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to all my readers of my book Fundamentals of Social Research who have been the inspiration behind "Statistics can be fun"

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OTHER BOOKS BY MUTEA RUKWARU

COPYRIGHT

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: STATISTICS

Meaning of statistics

History of Statistics

Branches of statistics

Uses of statistics

Functions of statistics

Quantitative data and qualitative data

CHAPTER TWO

Ethics in Statistics

Codes and ethics in research

Some of the examples of unethical behaviour in statistics

CHAPTER THREE

Measurements and sampling

Definition of measurement

History of measurement

Levels of measurement

Sampling

Advantages of sampling

How to Get a Representative Sample

Sampling methods

Proportionate random sampling

Multi-stage sampling

Non-probability sampling

Snowball sampling

Purposive sampling

CHAPTER FOUR

Measures of central tendency

Mean

Computation of the mean from grouped data

Median

Median for grouped data

Mode

CHAPTER FIVE

Measures of dispersion (variation)

Standard deviation

Procedure for calculating standard deviation for ungrouped data

Calculating standard deviation from grouped data

Quartile

Percentiles

Range

Midrange

Interquartile range (IQR)

CHAPTER SIX

The Testing of Hypothesis

Chi Square Test (x2).

Gamma Method (γ)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Data Analysis

Data cleaning

Coding of data

CHAPTER EIGHT

The final Report

Title

Table of contents (Contents list)

Abstract (Executive summary)

Introduction and background information

Purpose of research and methods chosen

Results and findings

Conclusions and recommendations

Appendices

REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

STATISTICS

Meaning of statistics

Even though you may not have realized it, you probably have made some statistical statements in your everyday conversation or thinking. Statements like I sleep for about eight hours per night on average and you are more likely to pass the exam if you start preparing earlier are actually statistical statements, (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/statistics).

There is no one standard definition of statistics and in many cases the definitions given depends on the emphasis of the scholar. The following definitions are but a few and are not exhaustive:

Connolly and Sluckin (1971) defines statistics as a collection of numerical data. Statistics is the science of collection, analysis and presentation of data (see www.amstat.org/careers/whatisstatistics.cfm).

Statistics is a discipline which is concerned with designing experiments and other data collection, summarizing information to aid understanding, drawing conclusions from data and estimating the present or predicting the future (See http://www.scc.ms. unimelb. edu.au/what is statistics/)

Statistics is the study or the collection, organization, analysis and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this including the planning and data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments. (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/statistics)

Statistics as a discipline is the development and application of methods to collect, analyze and interpret data. (See statistics.un/edu/what is.shtml).

Statistics in a nutshell is the science of the collection, organization and interpretation of numerical data. It is the branch of mathematics that involves the use of quantified, representations, models for the representation and analysis of given empirical and real data. In essence statistics is a science of counting,