The Basic Practice of Statistics

This book is very organized when it comes to laying out material. There is no guessing or play on words within questions or definitions, just straight and to the point. It's nice to see that there is an answer key and a detailed index, for there have been math textbooks I have ran across that did not have both these features. For those who have to struggle through a 100 series stats course, I recommend this textbook. It's quite foolproof and easy to comprehend, plus it is worth keeping as a refresher for continuing academic studies regardless of one's field.

It's difficult to write a glowing review for a statistics textbook. Even if it's an excellent book, deserving of five stars, it's treating a subject the study of which, for most people, ranks right up there between watching paint dry and getting warts removed. I've used several statistics textbooks in teaching, tutoring and studying stats. Some of them had great illustrations, and some had a cool CD in the back. Most had instructions for using a TI calc, Excel or Minitab to solve problems. Some tried to push a sociopolitical agenda through careful selection of examples and problems. But until this book, none of them did a decent job of explaining, in plain language, what all the "things" in statistics really meant. Finally we have a textbook that explains to the student studying statistics for the first time, what the "standard deviation of the mean" (to choose a random example) really means, and why he/she should care. Other books may try, but their language is still up there in Math Land. This book gets it right. This book also has the great illustrations, the cool CD in back, the TI/Excel/Minitab instructions. It also has the sociopolitical agenda, as evidenced in the authors' choices for examples and problems. In a clever bit of self-parody, the book warns repeatedly about how easy it is to promote a sociopolitical agenda through the judicious use of statistics. The authors announce at the beginning of the book that it will not include any "how-to" algorithms or practice for calculating basic statistics by hand, since everyone has access to tools that do the hard work for you. That's a disappointment. Every student of statistics ought to calculate a standard deviation by hand once in their life, just so they know how it's done.

I notice that most of the reviews for Moore's THE BASIC PRACTICE OF STATISTICS have been written by students. I found these reviews insightful to read. My students (like the ones who composed the reviews) are not math majors and do NOT want to enroll in a statistics course. Being sensitive to that fact, I spent a great deal of time selecting a statistic text. I had several concerns which directed me toward adopting Moore's text: 1. Oftentimes, one can find typos in textbooks. This isn't a major problem, but if there is a typo in a formula, the problems for students are enormous! If the professor is from the math or statistics department, he/she can quickly catch the error and explain it to the students. If the professor is from the social sciences, he/she is less likely to catch the error. I've actually found errors in statistics textbooks. These critical errors usually can be found in books which are written by social scientists (someone like me). Thus, I've concluded that stat books written by statisticians are less apt to have typos than stat books written by social scientists. Moore is a statistician with a considerable reputation. 2. I needed a book with excellent graphic illustrations. A good graphic will help a student understand a complex statistical concept better than the written word. Moore's text is filled with great graphics that explain complex concepts. Page 347 is a great example and has produced an epiphany for several students. 3. I needed an introductory book that included information on control charts. Moore offers this. Frankly, I haven't found another intro stat book that does this. I've reviewed a large number of statistic textbooks. In my estimation, Moore offers the best book for non math majors. For more reading about the use of THE BASIC PRACTICE OF STATISTICS, check out volume 27 issues 3-4, 2007, pages 199-213 of THE JOURNAL OF TEACHING IN SOCIAL WORK.

I first took stats last year using this book. It has many great examples in every facet of statistics. Also it shows you how to use Excel, Minitab, and a graphing calculator as opposed to most other books who discriminate. I am now taking Business Statistics and constantly refer back to this book because the new one just won't cut it. Definitely a worthwhile statistics book.

This is a really good book for the introduction to Statistics. The accompanying CD is very good. IT contains lots of data from the problems in the book so you don't have to key in. My instructor also gave us a lot of homework assignments to be done with Minitab. The CD comes with a free student version of SPSS. You may have to buy Minitab if you intent on using it. But do use its very intutive and powerful. The book also encourages the use of Excel, Minitab and TI 83. I used Voyage 200 and it was very helpful for this course. The comanion website is awesome it contains every thing thats on your CD plus additional applets, quizes to help reinforce the material.