Organization of Data

Abstract

In Chapter 2 we start with the statistical information as it is obtained by the investigator; this information might be an instructor’s list of students and their grades, a record of the tax rates of counties in Florida, or the prices of Grade A large eggs in each of ten Chicago grocery stores averaged over the past 36 months. We refer to such statistical information as data, the recorded results of observation. After the collection of data, the next step in a statistical study is to organize the information in meaningful ways, often in the form of tables and graphs or charts. These displays or summaries are descriptions which help the investigator, as well as the eventual reader of the study, to understand the implications of the collected information. In later chapters we shall develop numerical descriptions that are more succinct than these tables and charts.