The Basic Practice of Statistics

This book is the little brother to Moore and McCabe (1999), which recently had its third edition, as reported by Ziegel (2001). Previously the Ž rst edition (1E) of the book was reviewed for Technometrics by Moore (1996). It received a solid endorsement in the reviewer’s summary: “ I believe that all introductory students would beneŽ t from this style of presentation, which minimizes the distraction of the mathematics of probability and statistics, emphasizing exploratory data analysis, sampling, and experimental design concepts, and encouraging the development of insight and understanding afforded by the use of statistical inference” (p. 404). The review described the content of the book in equally imposing sentences. As the quote indicates, this book is classical statistics presented as gently as possible. The author is widely renowned for this approach. Moore and McCabe (1999) gave an even bigger dose of the same type of stuff. The book is intended to be suitable for use in two-year colleges, so this version of this approach is very basic. Computing within the book is at the level of the “two-variable statistics calculator,” Excel, and Minitab. Using the “classical approach,” it certainly involves less statistical computing than I would present. As a second edition (2E), there are not many changes from the Ž rst edition. Some probability material was separated from the chapter on probability and sampling distributions, made into a following chapter on probability theory, and labeled as optional. It is not hard to agree with that decision. There is a new chapter on nonparametric statistics tacked on at the end of the book. There also is a nice shiny CD-ROM packaged with the 2E that includes an encyclopedia of examples, datasets, quizzes, a Web link for updates, and some additional text sections that are not in the book. The book has been reformatted in a four-color layout. It now includes new chapter introductions and adds chapter summary sections.