Statistics: Concepts and Controversies Ninth Edition

I first came across the fourth edition of this book, and immediately fell in love with both the book and the subject matter. When I pursued graduate study, I picked up a copy of the fifth edition of the book, and routinely gave statistical advice based on its contents to eager recipients. While in grad school, I lent my copy of the fifth edition to a friend struggling to understand statistical concepts even at a rudimentary level (as did most of the students in the program) and she never gave it back- that's how good it was (she later told me that after leaving her hands, it quickly found its way to several other students' hands).The book's success rests solely on two important things- a clear, concise, and sometimes witty presentation of statistical basics, and a minimum of mathematical computation, formulae and Greek letters. This book teaches statistical conepts, their appropriate use, their limitations and most importantly, their abuse. Saying that the text is 'statistics lite' is disrespectful, but saying that the text helps to promote the use of thinking and reasoning when faced with statistics is giving it high praise.While most books on the market emphasize often mindless mathematical computation and the manipulation of arcane formulae, this book eschews that and focuses solely on making sense of statistics, principally those stats that others have generated. Make no mistake: this is not a text for number crunchers, those looking to generate statistics (for this, consult Moore's excellent textbook, Introduction to the Practice of Statistics). The author made a successful attempt to introduce statistical concepts and the thinking and reasoning needed to use them appropriately long before the push to emphasize these aspects (spearheaded by the American Statistical Association) in the teaching of statistics became the rage.The text had absolutely no faults. Learning from it was painless and fun. After reading it, I kinda sorta considered pursuing advanced training in statistics, but then backed off after seeing all of the Greek involved.After reading and using this book, students will finally feel comfortable around means and standard deviations, p-values and null hypotheses. The only other textbook coming close to it is Purves and Pisani's Statistics (now likely in its fourth or fifth edition). A more mathematically rigorous book (one requiring numerical calculations) which also aims to impart a fair degree of comfort around statistics and instill some statistical literacy is Utts and Heckard's Mind on Statistics. In passing, I swear by the book, Statistics- A Spectator Sport, which makes for a good reference on key concepts.I owe Professor Moore a great debt of gratitude for this book, as it opened my eyes to a new world, demystifying a previously intimidating body of knowledge, and helping me immensely to think and to reason through research problems involving a statistical component. One thing is certain: the next copy I purchase is never leaving my bookshelf, as it is too good to give away.

This book accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish admirably; it sets out the basic concepts of statistics with as little reliance on Math as possible, to give students who are not Math-oriented an idea of the subject.If you are Math-oriented, and already know a bit about statistics, you will not learn much here. But that is not the fault of the book; it is not intended to teach someone with a grounding in the subject, any more than it is a flaw of an intro Biology textbook that it doesn't teach Organic Chemistry.I have a couple of minor quibbles about this book, but they're really too minor to mention, and are certainly too minor to dock it a star for.

Great book came in excellent condition. Very easy to read textbook short chapters they don’t drag along like the usual textbooks. Highly recommend if you want to learn about statistics.

A surprisingly well laid out book, but it would benefit from more basic examples. Like many college statistics texts, it still assumes the user has some modicum of an idea how this particular school of math works. Since I do not, I often found myself flipping back through chapters and scratching my head in confusion.

The book is a rental that was purchased for my daughter who is attending college. Since book is used, the expectations are that it will be useable when it arrives. I received the book 2 days after I place the order and the book was in good condition and certainly useable. I would recommend this service to anyone who does not want to spend thousands of dollars on books that you are likely only going to use for the class.

I was really worried when I found this book at my school for $100. Thanks to Amazon, I was able to rent it for 1/4 of the cost. If I didn't have this book, I would have never been able to achieve the work assigned for this class. The book itself is easy to use and self explanatory.

both backings to the book were ripped. kind of annoying when u have to carry it back and forth to class

Want to be statistics savvy? Don't want or can't handle the math in most texts? Then I recommend this book. Well written for the lay person, with careful thought given to progressive learning of stats concepts.An excellent choice for someone who wants to be able to critically understand social statistics. The exercises and review sections are fun - not often the case in this area of study.

Good

Item arrived on time, perfect condition, like new. This is a good book for those who like to understand statistics without having to be an expert in mathematics.