Reading Reports
One of the goals for this course is to make you educated
consumers of statistics. Now that we are nearing the end
of the semester, here is your chance to give it a try.
The Assignment
Your assignment is to read an article of your own choosing that describes
a statistical using statistical methods we have seen in this
course, and to give a short (5-8 minute) report to the class.
Here are the details:
- Select a Partner.
You should work in pairs for this assignment. If you find this
constraint particularly unworkable, come talk to me about it.
- Select an Article.
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You may choose an article in any discipline. One good way to locate
articles is to get the name of a journal or two from a professor in a
discipline that interests you. Or you can just go to the library and
start looking through journals.
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What to look for:
Within the first page or two of the kind of paper you want
there is usually a section called “Data Analysis” or something similar.
Look at that and see if some of what they are doing uses familiar
stuff like regression, t-tests, ANOVA, chi-square, etc.) If they are,
and if the paper interests you, then you are all set.
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Register Your Report
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You must sign up for a report time in advance. On the form you will need
to supply the following information:
- Your name(s)
- Article information (author, title, source)
- Statistical test/procedures used (Chi-square, regression, etc.)
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Reports will be given in class on May 4, 7 and 9. (On these particular
days, attendance during the entire class will be mandatory.) I will
post sign-up sheets on my door. The first ones to sign up will get
their pick of times.
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You must register your report by 4 pm on Wednesday, May 2.
- Make Your Presentation
- Your presentation should include the following information:
- objective of the study (what question were they trying to answer?),
- design of the study,
- participants in study (researchers and subjects),
- statistical methods used,
- summary of statistical results (feel free to use overheads,
PowerPoint, etc.), and
- conclusions drawn from this
Much of this information can be found in the abstract. (Check the
the introduction and conclusion, too).
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Both you and your partner must be involved in the presentation
in some way. Perhaps one of you can introduce the study and the other
discuss the results.
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Hand materials in.
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A copy of any overheads you make (including PowerPoint slides or other
software demos).
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Bibliographic information for the article (author, title, etc.)
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Your name(s)
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Get a Grade.
Take your report seriously. You will be giving your report
in front of the class with 5% of your grade riding on it.
You need not select an article that uses the gamut of statistical
techniques we've learned this semester. Nevertheless, the
one you do select should contain the use of statistical
procedures that you clearly understand and can present
in a professional manner.
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