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008			200208s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a9780872896062
082			_a320.072 POL 3rd ed.
100			_aPollock, Philip H.
245		0	_aEssentials of political analysis
250			_a3rd ed.
260			_aWashington D.C
260			_bCQ Press
260			_c2009
300			_a256 p.
365			_b9000
365			_dRS
520			_aStudents are of two minds about methods. Many students can examine graphic or tabular data and offer a reasonably meaningful description. Provided with a set of procedural guide lines, students display considerable facility at setting up cross-tabulations, comparing per centages or means, sketching bar charts, and writing a paragraph describing the data. At the same time, however, students balk at the idea that inferential statistics can serve as an inter pretive tool. They tend to view statistical evidence as an odd element, an additional compli cation quite separate from their substantive findings. "I'm not really a statistics person" is a familiar refrain. Students can be intrepid interpreters of data yet reluctant practitioners of statistics. This book cultivates students' nascent analytical abilities and develops their statistical reasoning, Chapters 1 through 5 build descriptive and analytic skills in a (mostly) nonstatisti cal context. With these essentials in place, students are able to appreciate the pivotal role of inferential statistics-introduced and applied, with increasing sophistication, in Chapters 6 through 9. Because the practical application of methodological concepts enhances students' comprehension, The Essentials of Political Analysis contains numerous hypothetical and actual examples. And because students become more adept at describing variables and inter preting relationships between them if they learn elemental graphing techniques, the chapters instruct in the interpretation of graphic displays of political variables. In addition to drawing on phenomena from U.S. politics, examples from comparative politics and international rela tions are also included. The narrative encourages students to stop and think about the exam ples, and the exercises at the end of each chapter permit students to apply their newly AST acquired skills. This volume contains forty-four end-of-chapter exercises.
650			_aPolitical science-Research
942			_cB _2ddc