|  | Author: David S. Moore
Publisher: W. H. Freeman
Buy Used: $2.00
as of 3/20/2010 06:21 CDT details
New (60) Used (412) from $2.00
Seller: penntext
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 59399
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 4th
Pages: 728
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.6
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 8.6 x 1.1
ISBN: 071677478X
Dewey Decimal Number: 519.5
EAN: 9780716774785
ASIN: 071677478X
Publication Date: August 4, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Books may NOT include Online Access Codes (InfoTrac, MyEconLab). Books MAY contain highlighting, bent pages, and/or writing. We ship M - F.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 12
 Finally! November 10, 2008
Ray Depew (Colorado)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
It's difficult to write a glowing review for a statistics textbook. Even if it's an excellent book, deserving of five stars, it's treating a subject the study of which, for most people, ranks right up there between watching paint dry and getting warts removed.
I've used several statistics textbooks in teaching, tutoring and studying stats. Some of them had great illustrations, and some had a cool CD in the back. Most had instructions for using a TI calc, Excel or Minitab to solve problems. Some tried to push a sociopolitical agenda through careful selection of examples and problems. But until this book, none of them did a decent job of explaining, in plain language, what all the "things" in statistics really meant.
Finally we have a textbook that explains to the student studying statistics for the first time, what the "standard deviation of the mean" (to choose a random example) really means, and why he/she should care. Other books may try, but their language is still up there in Math Land. This book gets it right.
This book also has the great illustrations, the cool CD in back, the TI/Excel/Minitab instructions. It also has the sociopolitical agenda, as evidenced in the authors' choices for examples and problems. In a clever bit of self-parody, the book warns repeatedly about how easy it is to promote a sociopolitical agenda through the judicious use of statistics.
The authors announce at the beginning of the book that it will not include any "how-to" algorithms or practice for calculating basic statistics by hand, since everyone has access to tools that do the hard work for you. That's a disappointment. Every student of statistics ought to calculate a standard deviation by hand once in their life, just so they know how it's done.
 Novice at Stats September 20, 2008
dame
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have never taken a Stats course before and I find this book deficient in several areas. First of all, I do not think it gives comprehensive explanation involving many concepts. Secondly, the problems at the end of each chapter incorporate formulas, equations of concepts that haven't been covered previously. Therefore, it's difficult to complete homework without much invesetigation and frustration! Lastly, I do not care for how the book refers back to previous examples on several occcasions. This cause you to have to jump back and forth in the book. Besides that, many of the illustrations have similar titles (e.g. example, figure, exercise..) and can lead to some confusion.
 Key Points August 1, 2008
S. M Marson (Lumberton, NC)
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
I notice that most of the reviews for Moore's THE BASIC PRACTICE OF STATISTICS have been written by students. I found these reviews insightful to read. My students (like the ones who composed the reviews) are not math majors and do NOT want to enroll in a statistics course.
Being sensitive to that fact, I spent a great deal of time selecting a statistic text. I had several concerns which directed me toward adopting Moore's text:
1. Oftentimes, one can find typos in textbooks. This isn't a major problem, but if there is a typo in a formula, the problems for students are enormous! If the professor is from the math or statistics department, he/she can quickly catch the error and explain it to the students. If the professor is from the social sciences, he/she is less likely to catch the error. I've actually found errors in statistics textbooks. These critical errors usually can be found in books which are written by social scientists (someone like me). Thus, I've concluded that stat books written by statisticians are less apt to have typos than stat books written by social scientists. Moore is a statistician with a considerable reputation.
2. I needed a book with excellent graphic illustrations. A good graphic will help a student understand a complex statistical concept better than the written word. Moore's text is filled with great graphics that explain complex concepts. Page 347 is a great example and has produced an epiphany for several students.
3. I needed an introductory book that included information on control charts. Moore offers this. Frankly, I haven't found another intro stat book that does this.
I've reviewed a large number of statistic textbooks. In my estimation, Moore offers the best book for non math majors.
For more reading about the use of THE BASIC PRACTICE OF STATISTICS, check out volume 27 issues 3-4, 2007, pages 199-213 of THE JOURNAL OF TEACHING IN SOCIAL WORK.
 AVOID July 22, 2008
A. Miller (Illinois, USA)
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
The content is this book is awful. This book is for a low level statistics class and fails at teaching even the basic concepts. If you want to learn math with words instead of numbers and symbols this is the book for you. I would not recommend this book to anyone. A better buy is Mathematical Statistics with Applications Sixth Edition Wackerly, Mendenhall, Scheaffer. I had that book for my MATH 483 class and it was a breeze. Can you believe it I actually enjoyed my statistics class!
Fulfils its purpose. April 21, 2008
Tom Wingard-Phillips (Seattle, WA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is pretty well organized in terms of content. It also works especially well when used with the study guide you can purchase as a supplement.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 12
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