Sách BOOK.Statistics Explained - A Guide for Social Science Students

xix
Preface to the Second
Edition
I have been very pleased with the success of the first edition of this book.
I found it particularly gratifying when one of my students said that she
could hear me speaking when she read the book. I hope other readers have
felt like her, that the book reads like someone talking – hopefully a friendly,
helpful voice – as I believe that the best way of learning is having someone
explain the material to me clearly. Despite the wonders of new technology
we should strive to maintain that personal contact between teacher and
student, and writer and reader. I was therefore in a quandary when asked
to do a second edition. I had received a number of complimentary letters
and emails from lecturers and students so I felt the book was doing its job
well. As the old adage says ‘if it’s not broken don’t mend it’ and the age
of a book shouldn’t undermine its value – indeed one of my own favourite
books on statistics is Siegel (1956) despite the excellent new editions.
However, there are changes I want to make based on the experience of the
passing years along with the constructive comments of my readers. I have
also produced, with colleagues, a companion volume on the computer
statistics package SPSS, which informed some of my thoughts on the new
edition (Hinton et al., 2004). I hope my voice still comes through clearly
and comprehensibly.
Since the first edition the debate has developed around the importance
of significance testing (Wilkinson and Task Force on Statistical Inference,