0.1 Writing up descriptive statistics

Writing up your descriptive statistics

Author Information

• John R. Slate is a Professor at Sam Houston State University where he teaches Basic and Advanced Statistics courses, as well as professional writing, to doctoral students in Educational Leadership and Counseling. His research interests lie in the use of educational databases, both state and national, to reform school practices. To date, he has chaired and/or served on over 100 doctoral student dissertation committees. Recently, Dr. Slate created a website, Writing and Statistical Help to assist students and faculty with both statistical assistance and in editing/writing their dissertations/theses and manuscripts.
• Ana Rojas-LeBouef is a Literacy Specialist at the Reading Center at Sam Houston State University where she teaches developmental reading courses. She recently completed her doctoral degree in Reading, where she conducted a 16-year analysis of Texas statewide data regarding the achievement gap. Her research interests lie in examining the inequities in achievement among ethnic groups. Dr. Rojas-LeBouef also assists students and faculty in their writing and statistical needs on the Writing and Statistical website, Writing and Statistical Help

The following is an example of how to write up (in manuscript text) your descriptive statistics. This module is used with a larger Collection (Book) authored by John R. Slate and Ana Rojas-LeBouef from Sam Houston State University and available at: Calculating Basic Statistical Procedures in SPSS: A Self-Help and Practical Guide to Preparing Theses, Dissertations, and Manuscripts

• Intelligence Test Scores of Students with Disabilities

Research questions

The following research questions were addressed in this study: (a) Of the five groups of elementary school students in this study, which group had the most participants, which group had the second most participants, and which group had the fewest participants? How many participants comprised the total sample for this study?; (b) How did these students perform on the three scores of: Full Scale IQ, the Verbal IQ, the Performance IQ?; (c) To what extent were students’ scores normally distributed on the Full Scale IQ, the Verbal IQ, and the Performance IQ?; (d) How well or how poorly did the boys score on the Full Scale IQ, the Verbal IQ, and on the Performance IQ?; (e) How well or how poorly did the boys score on the Full Scale IQ, the Verbal IQ, and on the Performance IQ?; and (f) Without using the words statistically or significantly, compare girls’ scores with the boys’ scores.