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A-1

A Statistical Reporting A-1 IntroductIon

By now, you have learned a wide variety of statistical tools, ranging from simple charts and descriptive measures to more complex tools, such as regression and time series analysis. We suspect that all of you will be required to use some of these tools in your later course- work and in your eventual jobs. This means that you will not only need to understand the statistical tools and apply them correctly, but you will also have to write reports of your analyses for someone else—an instructor, a boss, or a client—to read. Unfortunately, the best statistical analysis is worth little if the report is written poorly. A good report must be accurate from a statistical point of view, but maybe even more important, it must be written in clear, concise English.1

As instructors, we know from experience that statistical report writing is the downfall of many students taking statistics courses. Many students appear to believe that they will be evaluated entirely on whether the numbers are right and that the quality of the write-up is at best secondary. This is simply not true. It is not true in an academic environment, and it is certainly not true in a business environment. Managers and executives in business are very busy people who have little time or patience to wade through poorly written reports. In fact, if a report starts out badly, the remainder will probably not be read at all. Only when it is written clearly, concisely, and accurately will a report have a chance of making any impact. Stated simply, a statistical analysis is often worthless if not reported well.

The goals of this brief appendix are to list several suggestions for writing good reports and to provide examples of good reports based on the analyses presented in this textbook. You have undoubtedly taken several classes in writing throughout your school years, and we cannot hope to make you a good writer if you have not already developed good basic writing skills. However, we can do three things to make you a competent statistical report writer. First, we can motivate you to spend time on your report writing by stressing how important it is in the business world. Indeed, we believe that poor writing often occurs because writers do not believe the quality of their writing makes any difference to anyone. However, we promise you that it does make a difference in the business world—your job might depend on it. Second, we can list several suggestions for improving your statistical report writing. Once you believe that good writing is really important, these tips might be all you need to help you improve your report writing significantly. Finally, we can provide examples of good reports. Some people learn best by example, so these “templates” should come in very handy.

There is no single best way to write a statistical report. Just as there are many different methods for writing a successful novel or a successful biography, there are many different methods for writing a successful statistical report. The examples we provide look good to us, but you might want to change them according to your own tastes—or maybe even

1This appendix discusses report writing. However, we acknowledge that oral presentation of statistical analysis is also very important. Fortunately, virtually all of our suggestions for good report writing carry over to making effective presentations. Also, we focus here on statistical reporting. The same comments apply to other quantitative reports, such as those dealing with optimization or simulation models.

A P P E N D I X

© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

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A-2 Appendix A Statistical Reporting

improve on them. Nevertheless, there are some bad habits that practically all readers will object to, and there are some good habits that will make your writing more effective. We list several suggestions here and expand on them in the next section.

Planning

■■ Clarify the objective.

■■ Develop a clear plan.

■■ Give yourself enough time.

Developing a Report

■■ Write a quick first draft.

■■ Edit and proofread.

■■ Give your report a professional look.

Be Clear

■■ Provide sufficient background information.

■■ Tailor statistical explanations to your audience.

■■ Place charts and tables in the body of the report.

Be Concise

■■ Let the charts do the talking.

■■ Be selective in the computer outputs you include.

Be Precise

■■ List assumptions and potential limitations.

■■ Limit the decimal places.

■■ Report the results fairly.

■■ Get advice from an expert.

A-2 SuggeStIonS for good StAtIStIcAl reportIng To some extent, the habits that make someone a good statistical report writer are the same habits that make someone a good writer in general. Good writing is good writing. However, there are some specific aspects of good statistical reporting that do not apply to other forms of writing. In this section, we list several suggestions for becoming a good writer in general and for becoming a good statistical report writer in particular.

A-2a planning Clarify the objective. When you write a statistical report, you are probably writing it for someone—an instructor, a boss, or maybe even a client. Make sure you know exactly what this other person wants, so that you do not write the wrong report (or perform the wrong statistical analysis). If there is any doubt in your mind about the objective of the report, clarify it with the other person before proceeding. Do not just assume that coming close to the target objective is good enough.

© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

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A-2 Suggestions for Good Statistical Reporting A-3

Develop a clear plan. Before you start writing the report, make a plan for how you are going to organize it. This can be a mental plan, especially if the report is short and straightforward, or it can be a more formal written outline. Think about the best length for the report. It should be long enough to cover the important points, but it should not be verbose. Think about the overall organization of the report and how you can best divide it into sections (if separate sections are appropriate). Think about the computer outputs you need to include (and those you can exclude) to make your case as strong as possible. Think about the audience for whom you are writing and what level of detail they will demand or will be able to comprehend. If you have a clear plan before you begin writing, the writing itself will flow much more smoothly and easily than if you make up a plan as you go. Most effective statistical reports essentially follow the outline below. We recom- mend that you try it.

■■ Executive summary

■■ Problem description

■■ Data description

■■ Statistical methodology

■■ Results and conclusions

Give yourself enough time. If you plan to follow the suggestions listed here, you need to give yourself time to do the job properly. If the report is due first thing Monday morning and you begin writing it on Sunday evening, your chances of producing anything of high quality are slim. Get started early, and don’t worry if your first effort is not perfect. If you produce something a week ahead of time, you will have plenty of time to polish it in time for the deadline.

A-2b developing a report

Write a quick first draft. We have all seen writers in movies who agonize over the first sentence of a novel, and we suspect that many of you suffer the same problem when writing a report. You want to get it exactly right the first time through, so you agonize over every word, especially at the beginning. We suggest writing the first draft as quickly as possible—just get something down in writing—and then worry about improving it with careful editing later on. The worst thing many of us face as writers is a blank piece of paper (or a blank computer document). Once there is something written, even if it is only in pre- liminary form, the hard part is over and the perfecting can begin.

Edit and proofread. The secret of good writing is rewriting. We believe this sugges- tion (when coupled with the previous suggestion) can have the most immediate impact on the quality of your writing. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to do. With today’s software, there is no excuse for not editing and checking thoroughly, yet we are con- stantly amazed at how many people fail to do so. Spell checkers and grammar checkers are available in all of the popular word processors, and although they do not catch all errors, they should definitely be used. Then the real editing task can begin. A report that contains no spelling or grammatical errors is not necessarily well written. We believe a good practice, given enough time and planning, is to write a report and then reread it with a critical eye a day or two later. Better yet, get a knowledgeable friend to read it. Often the wording you thought was fine the first time around will sound awkward or confusing on a second reading. If this is the case, rewrite it! And don’t just change a word or two. If a sentence sounds really awkward or a paragraph does not get your

© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

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A-4 Appendix A Statistical Reporting

point across, don’t be afraid to delete the whole thing and explore better ways of struc- turing it. Finally, proofread the final copy at least once, preferably more than once. Just remember that this report has your name on it, and any careless spelling or grammar mistakes will reflect badly on you. Admittedly, this editing and proofreading process can be time-consuming, but it can also be very rewarding when you realize how much better the final report reads.

Give your report a professional look. We are not necessarily fans of the glitz that today’s software enables (fancy colored fonts, 3-D charts, and so on), and we suspect that many writers spend too much time on glitz as opposed to substance. Nevertheless, it is important to give your reports a professional look. If nothing else, an attractive report makes a good first impression, and a first impression matters. It indicates to the reader that you have spent some time on the report and that there might be something inside worth reading. Of course, the fanciest report in the world cannot overcome a lack of substance, but at least it will gain you some initial respect. A sloppy report, even if it presents a great statistical analysis, might never be read at all. In any case, leave the glitz until last. Spend sufficient time to ensure that your report reads well and makes the points you want to make. Then you can have some fun dressing it up.

A-2c Be clear

How many times have you read a passage from a book, only to find that you need to read it again—maybe several times—because you keep losing your train of thought? It could be that you were daydreaming about something else, but it could also be that the writing itself is not clear. If a report is written clearly, chances are you will pick up its meaning on the first reading. Therefore, strive for clarity in your own writing. Avoid long, convoluted sentence structure. Don’t beat around the bush, but come right out and say what you mean to say. Make sure each paragraph has a single theme that hangs together. Don’t use jargon (unless you define it explicitly) that your intended readers are unlikely to understand. And, of course, read and reread what you have written—that is, edit it—to ensure that your writing is as clear as you initially thought.

Provide sufficient background information. After working on a statistical analysis for weeks or even months, you might lose sight of the fact that others are not as familiar with the project as you are. Make sure you include enough background information to bring the reader up to speed on the context of your report. As instructors, we have read through the fine details of many student reports without knowing exactly what the overall report is all about. Don’t put your readers in this position.

Tailor statistical explanations to your audience. Once you begin writing the Statistical Methodology and Results sections of a statistical report, you will probably start wondering how much explanation you need to include. For example, if you are describing the results of a regression analysis, you certainly want to mention the R2 value, the standard error of estimate, and the regression coefficients, but do you need to explain the meanings of these statistical concepts? This depends entirely on your intended audience. If this report is for a statistics class, your instructor is certainly famil- iar with the statistical concepts, and you do not need to define them in your report. But if your report is for a nontechnical boss who knows very little about statistics beyond means and medians, some explanation is certainly warranted. Even in this case, how- ever, keep in mind that your task is not to write a statistics textbook; it is to analyze a particular problem for your boss. So keep the statistical explanations brief, and get on with the analysis.

© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

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A-2 Suggestions for Good Statistical Reporting A-5

Place charts and tables in the body of the report. This is a personal preference and can be disputed, but we favor placing charts and tables in the body of the report, right next to where they are referenced, rather than at the back of the report in an appendix. This way, when readers see a reference to Figure 3 or Table 2 in the body of the report, they do not have to flip through pages to find Figure 3 or Table 2. Given the options in today’s word processors, this can be done in a visually attractive manner with very little extra work. Alternatively, you can use hyperlinks to the charts and tables.

A-2d Be concise

Statistical report writing is not the place for the flowery language often used in novels. Your readers want to get straight to the point, and they typically have no patience for verbose reports. Make sure each paragraph, each sentence, and even each word has a purpose, and eliminate everything that is extraneous. This is the time where you should put critical editing to good use. Just remember that many professionals have a one-page rule—they refuse to read

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