STATISTICS IN ARGUMENTS:

The use of statistics can greatly enhance your authority when making precise comments about data and ideally, you should quote a statistical parameter if applicable rather than quote a vague phrase such as "reasonable agreement"; or even worse, "the theory is verified because all the points are near the line" – when some are clearly not!  The obvious problem in describing data is that words alone are not enough; analysis of any relationship between parameters is likely to involve the plotting of graphs, their interpretation, and their comparison with other theories or well-established patterns.

However, an understanding of statistics and its use is presenting and describing data is as much a test of your communication skills as it is of your mathematics.

Fortunately, to ease the mathematical burden, there are now many software packages that you can use and it is important to note that the use of statistics does not always imply long and complex mathematics; but it does require selecting the correct analytical tools for the type of data being used.

So although this CD-ROM does not attempt to teach you statistics, it does outline some examples of standard statistical tests that might be used to help present your statistics more forcefully in argument.