1.Why you need science: The beginning and the end

2.Reporting research, variables and measurement: Breaking the law

3.Summarizing data: She loves me not?

4.Fitting models (central tendency): Somewhere in the middle

5.Presenting data: Aggressive perfector

6.z-scores: The wolf is loose

7.Inferential statistics: Going beyond the data: Humiliative

8.Robust estimation: Man without faith or trust

9.Hypothesis testing: In reality all is void

10.Modern approaches to theory testing: A careworn heart

11.Assumptions: Starblind

12.Relationships: A stranger’s grave

13.The general linear model: Red fire coming out from his gills

14.Comparing two means: Rock or bust

15.Comparing several means: Faith in others

16.Factorial designs: Prayer of transformation

17.Epilogue: The genial night: Si momentum requiris, circumspice

The book is aimed at anyone interested in learning statistical methods. It assumes no prior knowledge at all.

Fundamentally, I’d teach with it the same way as with any other book. Most of the chapters have a very similar structure: section of story, section of statistics, section of story, section of statistics, section of story. So, in most chapters there are two large sections of statistics that are book-ended by story, and there’s a bit of story in the middle to offer some light relief. As such, it’s fairly easy to ignore the story if you want to. The sections of statistics are all written as conversations between the main character and various people he meets. The academic content is what you’d expect to find but presented as a conversation between a student (the main character) and a teacher (the particular character in the story who is teaching him). This sort of Socratic style is a good tool for teaching because the main character (hopefully) asks the same sorts of questions that students often want to ask. Of course, you should feel free to embrace the story if that suits your teaching style, and I could imagine giving lectures that begin by setting the scene of the story, or which end with the chapter cliff-hangers. I’d love to hear of people doing that, but ultimately you have to do what works for your teaching style.

Having a story running through the book means that it works best if you read it from cover to cover. The idea is that once you get into the story it acts as a motivator to read the book, and therefore the statistics parts. One of the major problems in teaching statistics, I think, is that people tend to dip into it without laying the foundations in the correct order. In a sense, the inten­tions of this book are to encourage you to learn things in a sensible order and build up your knowledge; in doing so you will (hopefully) understand the material better. However, I think you can dip in if you really want to because the chapters are structured in a fairly standard way (see my answer to How do I teach with a book that has a fictional narrative?) so you can read the sec­tions relating to statistics without necessarily having to know what’s going on in the story. In my ideal world, though, you would start at the beginning and read until the end.

This book is supported by SAGE Edge, which will offers a range of additional resources to support students and lecturers including:

For students:

• Learning objectives remind you of the key concepts you will learn in each chapter.
• Multiple choice quizzes let you test yourself and prepare for exams.
• Flashcards featuring all the statistical terms in this book, as well as a few none statistical ones, help you learn statistical terminology.
• Data files and R scripts for each chapter allow you to work through the Check your Brain problems and end of chapter puzzles.
• Zach’s facts from each chapter have been extracted to help your revision.
• Answers to end of chapter questions allow you to test your understanding. 
• Links to a videos relevant to this book (as well as others) are available on my YouTube channel, at www.youtube.com/user/ProfAndyField
• Action plans highlighting all the resources available on the website.
• A bit of distraction. My publisher has created a few theoretically fun quizzes such as Are You a Chipper or a Clockotorian? because sometimes you need a break from all the stats.

For lecturers

• A testbank based on the most relevant questions from Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, 4e, has been adapted to support this book and can be customised for your teaching.
• PowerPoints featuring the figures and tables from the book. 
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