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Stat-Spotting

A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data
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( 161 ratings, 12 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Stat-Spotting exposes the misleading use of alarming statistics in media and everyday information. Joel Best guides readers through common errors in data interpretation, helping them become critical consumers of news without requiring advanced maths or statistics knowledge. This new edition includes updated benchmark stats, resources, and explores the rhetorical use of statistics with fresh examples and exercises.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$5699
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Perfect for general readers who want to critically evaluate stats in the media, students, educators, and anyone interested in understanding the proper use of data.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States? Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year? Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today? This title deals with these questions.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States? Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year? Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today? Alarming statistics bombard our daily lives, appearing in the news, on the Web, seemingly everywhere. But all too often, even the most respected publications present numbers that are miscalculated, misinterpreted, hyped, or simply misleading.

This new edition contains revised benchmark statistics, updated resources, and a new section on the rhetorical uses of statistics, complete with new problems to be spotted and new examples illustrating those problems. Joel Best's bestseller exposes questionable uses of statistics and guides the reader toward becoming a more critical, savvy consumer of news, information, and data.

Entertaining, informative, and concise, Stat-Spotting takes a commonsense approach to understanding data and doesn't require advanced math or statistics.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Joe Swingle, Numeracy: "An ideal guide for anyone who reads a newspaper, watches television, or surfs the Web. In short, everyone."
Nacada Journal: "Offers an eye-opening field guide to identifying problematic data and concludes by calling for better statistics."

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780520279988

Publisher: University of California Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 14 September 2013

Country: United States

Imprint: University of California Press

Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 13.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 227g

Pages: 160

About the Author

Joel Best is Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. Among his many books are Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads, More Damned Lies and Statistics: How Numbers Confuse Public Issues, and Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists, all from UC Press.

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    Why can't we seem to agree on facts? In this brief volume, sociologist Joel Best turns his inimitable eye toward the social construction of facts. He evaluates how facts emerge from our social worldsβ€”including our beliefs, values, tastes, and normsβ€”and according to those worlds' standards. By developing a sociological perspective towards what we think we know, he argues, we can...
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    Here, by popular demand, is the updated edition to Joel Best's classic guide to understanding how numbers can confuse us. In his new afterword, Best uses examples from recent policy debates to reflect on the challenges to improving statistical literacy. Since its publication ten years ago, Damned Lies and Statistics has emerged as the go-to handbook for spotting bad statistics...
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