Datasets from the Book: Statistical Consulting

ESL Supplement to:

Statistical Consulting
Javier Cabrera and Andrew McDougall
Springer-Verlag, (2002): 393pp

Basic Checks in Report Writing:

Spelling: Typographical errors are distracting. Your favorite spell-checker can be helpful, but it is not infallible. A dictionary can help you check the appropriate usage of a particular word.
Fluency: Your sentences must make sense. Reading the sentence aloud can often help identify problems with syntax and construction.
Paragraphs: All the sentences in a paragraph should be related to a main point. Digressions tend to confuse the focus of the reader and this can result in your point being misunderstood.
Revisions: Whether you continuously revise as you write or wait until a complete draft is finished before revising, no final report should be submitted without performing a careful check. A good strategy is to have somebody else read your draft.

English as a Second Language (ESL)

For writers whose native language is not English the checks listed below may not always be easy. Based on our experience, students in this situation can find the correct use of articles and punctuation to be particularly troublesome. If this situation applies to you, the discussion we present below may be helpful. However, your obligation to improve your English comprehension certainly does not end here. If you have not already done so, obtain a reference handbook on writing; preferably one that includes ESL advice. The handbook, A Writer's Reference, by Diana Hacker (1998) includes specific ESL advice and would be a useful reference in general. Having a native speaker of English read your drafts would also be helpful, provided you treat this as a learning experience and not as a way to avoid the problem. Of course, you still bear sole responsibility for quality and content of the final report. Finally, the benefits of enrolling in a writing course should not be overlooked.

Articles:

There are only three articles in English: a, an, the. The correct use of articles is important since the improper use of articles will be very obvious to the reader. Articles signal that a noun is to appear. Thus, the choice of article will depend on the type of noun involved.

a, an
The indefinite articles a, an are used with singular count nouns whose identity is unknown. When the noun begins with a vowel sound, an is used instead of a .
Examples:

The client's data is on a blue disk
The actual disk is unknown to you. Note that the article a refers to the disk, not the color blue --- modifiers (adjectives) may intervene between an article and the noun it marks. To check whether the noun is a count noun, replace a by the word ``one''; the sentence should still make sense.

The treatment was applied for an hour
In this case the `h' in hour is silent so it takes on the vowel sound of `our'. While an is used with many nouns that start with a vowel, an umbrella, this is not always the case: a unit

Exception: Do not use a or an with singular noncount nouns. These nouns refer to qualitative abstractions or entities such as advice, knowledge, weather, which are not countable. That is, it makes no sense to say ``one weather''
the
Use the with nouns whose identity is known to the reader, or with singular noncount nouns.
Examples:

The client's data is on the blue disk next to his briefcase
The briefcase identifies the specific disk so the identity of the disk is now known to the reader.

So what do you think of the weather?
See the exception note above.

Punctuation:

This helps the reader interpret what you have written. Without punctuation your report would be difficult (if not impossible) to read. By simplifying or rewriting a sentence you can often eliminate the need for more complicated punctuation. A simple way to enhance the readability of your report is to make appropriate use of commas. Note that commas should not be just ``sprinkled'' through a sentence, but placed where they are needed.

comma
The comma [ , ] is used to alert the reader that you are about to introduce something new into the current sentence. In effect, you are giving the reader a brief mental pause before moving onto the next piece of information. From the reader's perspective, this allows the current piece of information to be interpreted. Prior to this point, the reading process was simply an accumulation of the information as you presented it. The reader is now ready to accumulate the next piece of information. The following examples illustrate some common situations where you need to employ commas.

Examples:

Logic In a randomized block design treatments are randomly allocated
A comma is needed after design since we do not want the reader to randomly design their own treatments!
Timing Before attempting to fit a regression model plot the data.
A comma is needed after model. We want to the reader to know ``when'' they should plot the data.
Lists To check normality we performed a Shapiro-Wilks test, looked at a Q-Q plot, and used a nonparametric density estimate.
Commas provide an efficient way to present three or more related items in a series. To write a separate sentence for each diagnostic is cumbersome and repetitious.
Asides The ARMA(1,1) model, using the log transformed data from 1980 on, provided reliable forecasts
Parenthetical afterthoughts should be set apart by commas. Since these asides interrupt the flow of a sentence, they should be avoided where possible. Try to rewrite the sentence or use two sentences instead. For example, the above statement could have been written as: Using ... on, the ARMA(1,1) provided ...
Titles Titles, dates, addresses etc, should adhere to standard formats. Commas are used to separate numeric years, street addresses, towns and zip codes.
Abuse (?) The comma, if used inappropriately, albeit correctly, can lead to rather overwhelming, possibly syntactical, and especially, interpretative problems for the reader assuming, of course, they got this far.
Commas can't help bad writing!

ESL Supplement to: Statistical Consulting Javier Cabrera and Andrew McDougall Springer-Verlag, (2002): 393pp

Basic Checks in Report Writing:

English as a Second Language (ESL)

Articles:

Punctuation:

ESL Supplement to:

Statistical Consulting
Javier Cabrera and Andrew McDougall
Springer-Verlag, (2002): 393pp