Product Description

This best-selling introduction stresses the development of statistical thinking – the assessment of credibility and value of the inferences made from data – by both those who consume and those who produce the information. The authors emphasize inference; data collection and analysis are covered extensively, as needed, to evaluate the reported results of statistical studies and to make good business decisions. Numerous case studies, examples, and exercises draw on real business situations and recent economic events. Assumes a background in basic algebra.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155690 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 944 pages

From the Publisher
This book presents balanced coverage of the theory and application of statistics while enhancing students' critical thinking skills. It teaches students how to analyze data that appear in situations in the world around them--almost all of the examples and exercises are based on current, real-world applications pulled from journals, magazines, news articles, and commerce. This text shows students that knowledge of statistics is important to their own lives.

From the Back Cover
This hands-on introduction to statistics presents balanced coverage of both the theory and application of statistics, showing readers how to analyze data that appear in situations in the world around them. It features an abundance of examples and exercises--nearly all based on current, real-world applications pulled from journals, magazines, news articles, and commerce. TI-83 boxes throughout describe the keystrokes and output of TI-83 graphing calculator, where appropriate, and an Exploring Data with a Computer feature provides 5 large "real" datasets (available on disk and referenced in an Appendix) as the basis for statistical explorations using a statistical software package. Computer output from SPSS, Minitab, SAS, and ASP are integrated throughout. Statistics, Data, and Statistical Thinking. Methods for Describing Sets of Data. Probability. Discrete Random Variables. Continuous Random Variables. Sampling Distributions. Inferences Based on a Single Sample: Estimation with Confidence Intervals. Inferences Based on a Single Sample: Tests of Hypotheses. Inferences Based on Two Samples: Confidence Intervals and Tests of Hypotheses. Analysis of Variance: Comparing More Than Two Means. Simple Linear Regression. Multiple Regression and Model Building. Categorical Data Analysis. Nonparametric Statistics. For anyone needing a contemporary, applications-oriented introduction to statistics.

About the Author

James T. McClave, Info Tech, Inc./ University of Florida

P. Goerge Benson, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia

Terry Sincich, University of South Florida

Customer Reviews

i taught out of an earlier edition of this book
The fact that this book is in its tenth edition is an indication of its popularity. Many years ago I taught courses in business statistics at the advanced undergraduate and first year graduate level in the business school at Cal State Fullerton. I found it to be an excellent text to teach out of at that time. Since many editions have occurred since then and Terry is a third authored introduced in editions after the one I taught out of I really can't give a review of this edition. But I do think it will be helpful to amazon readers to know that McClave and Benson have a very good track record as authors of business statistics texts and Terry Sinich has coauthored a number of successful introductory and intermediate level statistics books. I am confident that this book is well written and has kept up with the advances in time series analysis that affects typical business related statistical problems.

Excellent book, bad publishing
I taught out of the 9th edition of this book and I liked it a lot. This is the perfect book for a second course in "methods statistics", i.e. a book about how to do the calculations, when to do them, and what they mean. There are no proofs or derivations, just recipes, but supplied with a lot of worked out examples, and an excellent discussions of when what methods are appropriate.

My gripe with the 10th edition is that the last two chapters, Time Series, and Non-parametric Statistics, are not printed on paper, but only available on the supplied student CD. These are two of the chapters that I teach, and I find it unacceptable that the students will not have these chapters in the book, but will have to look at them on the screen. Or, if they decide to print them out, our department budget for printing and copying will be bancrupted. The publisher's explanation was that this was done "to save printing costs". Yet, the new edition is not any cheaper than the previous one!

Reluctantly, I am switching to an inferior text by a different publisher, just because it has all its chapters printed.

Excellent text for Advanced Placement statistics course
I was a member of the text selection committee that chose this book for our school division's advanced placement statistics course. It was a wise decision. The text is filled with contemporary examples that grab a student's attention. It is particularly good at using technology both in the exercises and in the discussion. My students were very comfortable with the reading level, and DID READ the text! I especially liked the project suggestions at the end of each chapter. The text's one weakness is the discussion and placement of the linear regression material. I needed a simpler approach and to do it much earlier in the course (after chapter 2). I had to supplement with material from other sources. However, this is a rather minor complaint compared to the text's many other strengths.