Descriptive Statistics

Paper details
Use your textbook, the Internet, newspaper websites (such as USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall
Street Journal, or The Washington Post) and the Strayer Library to research an article that uses statistical
data related to a current event, your major, your current field, or your future career goal. Note: The
Assignment Template for Descriptive Statistics [DOCX] is provided to help you to organize your thoughts
and ideas.
The chosen article must have a publication date during this quarter and use one of the following categories
of descriptive statistics:
Measures of frequency: counting rules, percent, frequency, frequency distributions.
Measures of central tendency: mean, median, mode.
Measures of dispersion or variation: range, variance, standard deviation.
Measures of position: percentile, quartiles.
Instructions
Write a 2–3 page paper in which you:
Write a summary of the article.
Explain how the article uses descriptive statistics.
Explain how the article applies to the real world, your major, your current job, or your future career goal.
Analyze the reasons why the author chose to use the various types of data shared in the article.This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to
the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any
additional instructions.
The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment:
Review an article that uses descriptive statistics and includes personal connections applicable to current
and future career goals.
Paper Layout:
Introduction
Begin your first paragraph here. Be sure to indent each new paragraph. Your introduction should include
the name of your article. Please remember that the article you choose, must be published during this
quarter. You should include the title and topic of the article in the introduction and a brief overview of the
topic. The link for this article must be included in the Source List at the bottom of this document.
This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to
the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any
additional instructions.
You must include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s
name, the course title, and the date. This is already set up for you in the template, so just enter your name
where it says Author’s Name and enter the appropriate date. The cover page and the reference page are
not included in the required assignment page length. The paper should be 2-3 pages without the cover
page and reference page, so that means 4-5 pages total with the cover page and reference page.
Summary
You can share the summary of the article you chose in this section. This should include 1-2 paragraphs.
The reader should have a clear understanding of the article after reading your summary.
Descriptive Statistics
In this section, please explain how the article uses descriptive statistics. You should also share examples of
the stats in the article. For example, “This article includes measures of frequency, because it shares the
percent of high school graduates for public schools for the City of Chicago. The article shares that 77% of
its students receive a diploma.” You should include several examples like this one. The article should use
one of the following categories of descriptive statistics:
• Measures of frequency: counting rules, percent, frequency, frequency distributions.
• Measures of central tendency: mean, median, mode.
• Measures of dispersion or variation: range, variance, standard deviation.
• Measures of position: percentile, quartiles.
Real World Applications
In this article, please explain how the article applies to the real world, your major, your current job, or your
future career goal. This should include 1-2 paragraphs.
Analysis
In this section, analyze the reasons why the author or authors of the article chose to use the various types
of data shared in the article. This should include 1-2 paragraphs.
Conclusion
You should have at least one source, which is the article that you are presenting. *You do not have to use
additional sources for your paper. If you decided to use them, you must follow-up SWS guidelines. In
addition to the article you chose, you can use your textbook or any article or book that supports your ideas.Why should you use outside sources? The first reason is that our papers will be more persuasive if we’re
using reliable, authoritative information, and we want to remind our reader that we didn’t just make stuff up.
Using authoritative sources creates an authoritative paper.
The second reason is that we want to avoid plagiarism penalties. Plagiarism can get us kicked out of
school, and we’re here to get a degree, so we want to remain enrolled. Plagiarism can be avoided by
simply letting your reader know where you found your information. For instance, if I tell you Bill Atkinson
sold HyperCard to Apple for $100,000 dollars, I may be making it up. If I instead tell you Levy (2011, p. 15)
reminds us that HyperCard was sold to Apple for $100,000 dollars by Bill Atkinson, you’ll be able to use my
sources list and look it up to help determine whether you want to believe me.
If it’s on your source list page, it needs to be referred to in your paper. If you’ve referred to it in your paper,
it needs to be on your list of sources.
So there you have it. Use the SWS throughout the paper. List your references. Refer to those references in
your paper. And use this paper as a template if you like.
Source List
Steven Levi. 2011. In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. Book on Amazon.com