Chance Encounters: A First Course in Data Analysis and Inference
C. J. Wild, George A. F. Seber · 1999
This book is a distinctive addition to the range of elementary textbooks on the market. It belongs to the family of which Moore and McCabe (1999) is a pioneering representative, in that it is focused on data and on statistical reasoning, expecting only a modest level of algebraic or arithmetic skill from a reader. However, in several ways it offers an attractive alternative approach. The authors distinguish their book as data oriented, using modern exploratory ideas and real data; computer oriented, using several popular software packages to produce analyses; intuitive and discursive without being long-winded, treating probability in a way that avoids the use of complex rules by embedding the ideas in a study of two-way tables: and using statistics to find answers to questions, so that statistical thinking rather than mechanical manipulation is the focus of presentation and of exercises. How well have the authors achieved these aims? The examples in the text, and the exercises, offer real data for analysis