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© Open Polytechnic 1
Here’s an example of what your report might look like. A covering memo and a Terms of
Reference are not required, but a Title page is. Including an Executive Summary or Abstract
is optional. You may prefer to use alternative terms (for example Procedure instead of
Methodology) in line with reports you have written for other subjects. Further help on
writing reports is found here:
http://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/study-with-us/study-resources-for-
students/assignments/types-of-assignments/reports/how-to-write-a-report/
Title Page (This will include your full name, student number and the title of your
report.)
Table of Contents (This lists the sections below.)
1. Introduction to topic and aims (Give a general discussion about your topic, discuss why the
questions you are asking are important and include two or more
clearly stated aims.)
(Title page, Table of Contents, Introduction: 20 marks)
2. Data
2.1 Data description (Give a general description of the data, its source, how it was
collected and name and describe the variables you will be using.)
2.2 Method of sampling (Say how your sampling was done and state the sample size.)
(Data description, method of sampling: 10 marks)
3. Data analysis
3.1 Methodology (Give a brief description of the analysis which will follow.)
3.2 Analysis (Show your analysis here – an example is shown on page 3 of this
document)
(Methodology, data analysis: 40 marks)
4. Conclusions (Summarise your findings in the context of your topic/aims and
discuss the implications).
5. Recommendations (Not all reports will have recommendations.)
(Conclusion, recommendations: 20 marks)
6. List of references (Data and any publications used should be referenced in correct APA
format. You do not need to reference information obtained from the
set text.)
72160 Statistical Analysis
Assignment 4 formatting instructions
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72160 Statistical Analysis Assignment 4 formatting instructions
© Open Polytechnic 2
7. Appendices (Include a sample of your data and manual workings or computer
output.)
(Presentation, referencing: 10 marks)
Headings: Use bold headings, with larger font for main headings. Imagine this is a
business report and you are preparing it for publication.
Tables: Tables should be labelled Table 1, Table 2 in the order they occur. This should go
above the table and on the following line there should be a title in italics.
For example:
Table 1
Means and standard deviations of cooking times
Mean (mins) Standard deviation (mins)
Men 42 23
Women 39 6
The table must be clear and easily ready. Data and headings should be centred. If you are
copying summary statistic tables from Excel or other software, delete any unnecessary
values, round to an appropriate number of decimal places and put in the units of
measurement.
Graphs. Graphs should be labelled Figure 1, Figure 2 etc below the graph, with a title. For
example
Figure 1: Normal quantile plot of density of the earth.
72160 Statistical Analysis Assignment 4 formatting instructions
© Open Polytechnic 3
It is optional whether you put a title on the graph as well as below it.
Appendices. This should start on a new page and be labelled Appendix. If there are more
than one, start each on a new page and label as Appendix A, Appendix B etc.
Page breaks. As we will be marking online, you need to use page breaks to keep the
correct pagination. Use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Enter in all versions of Word. Put a
page break after your title page, after your Table of Contents and between appendices.
Keep all tables on one page, rather than splitting them in the middle.
Footer. Insert a footer and include your full name, student number, 72160 Assignment 4
and page numbers in this footer. On Word 2010 and 2007 this is on the Insert ribbon. On
Word 2003 use View, Header and Footer and hover over the icons to see the one which
switches between header and footer.
APA referencing style. If you refer to any publications, you must cite and reference these
correctly. You can find help with referencing on the main Online Campus page under Find
Support.
Here’s an example of what the analysis section might look like.
3. Data Analysis
3.1 Methodology
(Give a brief description of the analysis which will follow)
3.2 Analysis
3.2.1 Comparison of mean cooking times taken by men and women
To compare the mean times taken by men and women to complete the task of cooking
dinner, the following side-by-side boxplots were prepared.
(Insert your graph here)
As can be seen, there appears to be little difference in median times, which are around
40 minutes. However, the men have one observation at 240 minutes, which appears
to be an outlier. Use of the 1.5IQR rule confirms this (see Appendix D). This
observation was checked for authenticity, found to be a legitimate value and retained
for further analysis. The minimum times are similar for both men and women at
around 20 minutes.
The means and standard deviations for cooking time are given in the following table.
(Insert your table here)
Although the means are similar, the men’s times have more variation.
A two-sample t test confirms that there is no statistically significant difference in mean
times taken. Using a one-sided alternative hypothesis that men take longer than
women, on average, to cook dinner, the hypotheses for this were:
0
:
w m
H
72160 Statistical Analysis Assignment 4 formatting instructions
© Open Polytechnic 4
:
a w m
H
The test is valid as the sum of the sample sizes exceeds 40.
Results show t(80) = 1.01, P = 0.17 (see software output in Appendix E). This large P-
value means that there is no evidence to reject
0
H and I can conclude that … .
3.2.2 Comparison of average number of dishes used by men and women
…..
72160 Statistical Analysis Assignment 4 formatting instructions
© Open Polytechnic 5
Reporting results of descriptive and inferential statistics
in APA format
Important note: APA presentation of statistical results is outlined as follows, but you
will not be penalised for not using this style. You will notice that some symbols are not
consistent with what has been used in our course (e.g. APA style uses M for sample
mean, rather than for median) and some formats are not what we have taught as
good practice (e.g. APA style has no leading zeros in decimal numbers less than 1). To
maintain consistency with our course textbook, we recommend you use the
conventions you have used during the trimester and follow the examples above.
In reporting the results of statistical tests, report the descriptive statistics (means and
standard deviations), the test statistic, degrees of freedom, obtained value of the test, and
the p-value. Test statistics and p-values should be rounded to two decimal places. All
statistical symbols that are not Greek letters should be italicised (M, SD, n, t, p, etc.)
Tables are useful if you find that a paragraph has almost as many numbers as words. If you
do use a table, do not also report the same information in the text. It’s either one or the
other.
Use a zero before the decimal point with numbers that are less than 1 when the statistic can
exceed 1 (e.g. 0.75 cm). Do not use a zero before a decimal fraction when the statistic
cannot be greater than 1 (e.g. correlation, proportion and levels of statistical significance).
Mean and Standard Deviation are most clearly presented in parentheses:
In the sample of 100 Statistical Analysis students the average Assignment 1 mark was
relatively high (M = 72.5%, SD = 9.4%).
In the Statistical Analysis course the average Assignment 1 mark for the sample of
100 students was 72.5% (SD = 9.4%).
Percentages are also most clearly displayed in parentheses with no decimal places:
Nearly half (49%) of participants in the sample were working full time.
Correlation:
The two variables were strongly correlated, R = .91.
Regression results are often best presented in a table. APA doesn’t say much about how to
report regression results in the text. You may use the following format:
Consumption = 225.75 + 0.86 Income, R = .89, R
2
= 79%
Confidence interval should be presented in squared parentheses with confidence level:
Mean: M = $300.5, 95% CI [$255.75, $344.25]
72160 Statistical Analysis Assignment 4 formatting instructions
© Open Polytechnic 6
Proportion: p = .55, 95% CI [.45, .65]
p-values
p = value (no leading zeros); e.g. p = .07
p < .01 (if the value is less than .01)
t-test should be include test statistic, degrees of freedom, value of the test and p-value,
i.e. t(df) = value, p-value:
one sample t-test: One sample t-test showed that the difference in quiz scores between
the current sample (n = 6, M = 3.45, SD = 2.11) and the
hypothesized value (µ = 3.00) was not statistically significant, t(5) =
1.25, p = .26, 95% CI [1.24, 5.66].
two sample t-test: Two sample t-test showed that the difference in Assignment 1 marks
between Statistical Analysis students in Trimester 1 and Trimester 2
was marginally significant, t(5) = 1.25, p = .08.
match pairs t-test: The 25 participants had an average difference from pre-test anxiety
scores of -4.8 (SD = 5.5), indicating the anxiety treatment resulted in
significant decrease in anxiety levels, t(24) = -4.36, p < .01 (one-
tailed).
Chi-square statistics are reported with degrees of freedom and sample size in
parentheses, and p-value:
As can be seen by the counts in the two-way table in Table xx, there is a significant
relationship between marital status and depression, χ
2
(3, n = 126) = 24.7, p < .01.
The relationship between these variables was not significant, χ
2
(1, n = 100) = 1.96, p
= .15. Whether the students posting their coursework activities or not did not differ by
gender.
Based on:
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6
th
ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Bloggs.Karen.72160.A3.1234567 1
72160 Statistical Analysis: Assignment 3
This is an example of how your Assignment 3 should look. Do not copy and paste from
this document – you need to use your own words! A blank version of the template can
be found on the Online Campus in the Assessments section. Save it to your computer, fill in
your project details and upload the file under the Assignment 3 link on the Online Campus.
Student name: Karen Bloggs Student number: 1234567
Title
The title of my project is:
1. Introduction
Give a brief description of your project. Discuss why it is important to investigate your aims and why
the project is of general interest. This should be covered briefly here and in more depth on the actual
project.
2. Aims
Specify two or more aims. These should be written in clear statistical language.
For example:
1. to test if the mean value of a variable differs for two populations (specify the variable and
populations)
2. to estimate the proportion of …… from a stated population
3. to investigate if there is a linear relationship between … and… (specify the two numeric
variables )
4. to investigate if there is any association between … and… (specify the two categorical
variables )
Bloggs.Karen.72160.A3.1234567 2
3. Methodology
3.1 Data collection and sampling method
State the source of your data (give the link if this comes from a website) and how the data was
collected. You need a simple random sample from a larger population or a stratified random sample
(e.g. divide your population into men and women and randomly sample from each). State what your
population is, your method of sampling and your sample size.
Note:
1. A sample size of about 100 is suitable, but if the dataset is already a sample of 200, then use
all 200.
2. If you get your data from a website, you may need to make some assumptions about how the
data was collected and how the sampling was done.
3. Data which has already been summarised, such as weekly totals of phone calls, cannot be
used. You need a sample of individual phone calls.
4. Data which is in time series order (e.g. weekly sales for the last two years) is not a random
sample and can only be used in conjunction with other data.
5. Possible sources for data are given on the 72160 page of the Online Campus under
Assignment 3 in the Assessments section.
3.2 Variables
Name your variables and state whether they are numeric or categorical variables. Give the range of
possible values each variable can take.
Note: your dataset must contain at least one numeric variable.
4. Analysis
Specify your planned analysis to answer Aim 1.
This should include the exploratory work (summary statistics, check for outliers), graphs you will use
and a form of inference.
For example, if the aim is to compare exam marks for men and women you might say your analysis
will include:
Histograms of men’s marks and women’s marks with comments
5 number summary of marks for men and women with comments
Side by side boxplots of marks with comments
Check for outliers using 1.5IQR rule and comment on outlier values
Mean and standard deviation of men and women’s marks with comments
Bloggs.Karen.72160.A3.1234567 3
Normal quantile plots of men and women’s marks with comments
A two sample t test to compare mean marks for men and women*
A confidence interval for the difference between the two means
*Think carefully about whether a two-sample t test or a matched-pairs t test is appropriate.
Repeat for Aim 2.
Note:
1. When doing tests of significance you are expected to show hypotheses, comment on validity,
test statistic, degrees of freedom, P-value and conclusion in your final project and include the
output in the appendix. See Formatting Instructions found under Assignment 4 in the
Assessments section of the Online Campus.
2. We have not covered inference for regression in this course, so if you are doing regression
you will be expected to find and discuss the following: scatterplot, R, R
2
, regression equation
and residual plot, but we do not expect t-tests or confidence intervals when addressing this
aim.
5. Data
Insert your dataset (or part of it; at least 5 observations) here. Make sure the columns are clearly
labelled with the variable names you have referred to above. Do not include any confidential
information, such as names.
For example:
ID number Gender Age Income ($) Location
1 Male 23 45000 Wellington
2 Female 45 87000 Wellington
3 Male 40 55500 Auckland
4 Female 25 28400 Christchurch
5 Female 33 37650 Auckland
Important Note: See the Assignment 4 Formatting Instructions in under Assignment 4 in
Assessments section of the Online Campus. Also refer to the relevant information in your Assessment
booklet (pink pages or in Assessments section of the Online Campus).
Stuck for data?
You will find some suggested data sources under Assignment 3 in Assessments section of the Online
Campus.
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