There was an excellent leading article on precisely this topic entitled
'Pstatistics and Mstatistics' in RSS News in May 2003.
I know because I wrote the article. If anyone has difficulty in getting
hold of a copy email me and I'll dig out a copy from my hard disk.
Ray Thomas ([log in to unmask])
-----Original Message-----
From: A UK-based worldwide e-mail broadcast system mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of honey vincent valle
Sent: 14 June 2006 08:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: statistic vs statistics, singular and plural senses
Hi List members,
I'd like to get your opinion regarding this "debate" that's going on among
some members of our department, including me. This is about the meaning of
statistics in the plural and singular senses. I know that statistics
(singular) is a science that deals with the collection, organization,
etc.... of data. Statistics (plural) are the data themselves and/or
computations derived from that set of data and also sample characteristics,
like the sample mean, median, etc. In short, statistics (plural) refer to
numerical/quantitative data and numerica derivations from these data. The
bone of the contention I think lies in the data itself. What if the data is
qualitative (not quantitative)? Are these considered statistics? The only
statistic I can get from these is the total number of elements in the data
set.
Pls. email me for your replies, comments, reactions, corrections, etc. Thank
you very much.
Sincerely
H. V. V. Valle
Philippines
*********************************
|