Getting Started

Abstract

The goals in Part I of this book are to describe and explain basic methods typically covered in an applied statistics course, but from a perspective that helps the reader appreciate, understand, and conceptualize the practical prob- lems with standard statistical techniques. Additional goals are to provide a foundation for understanding why some modern methods offer a distinct ad- vantage in applied work and why certain common strategies for dealing with nonnormality fail. Perhaps the most striking problem with standard statisti- cal methods is described in Chapter 7, but very serious problems are covered in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 as well. This particular chapter covers some basics about measures of location and scale, but even here some important concepts and perspectives are introduced that are not typically covered in an introductory course. So even if the reader has had an elementary statistics course, it is strongly recommended that the first part of this book be read carefully.