STAT 100 – Spring 2014: Written Assignment
Note: this paper is optional and is for extra credit, as discussed in the syllabus. The exception is James
Scholar students taking the course for honors credit, where it is mandatory and with a larger length
requirement.
Description
For this paper, choose a topic that interests you and write a short paper about it. The topic can
be essentially anything as long as it meets one requirement: it has to have data involved that you can
analyze in some way. Ideally it will have data that you can gather and either calculate averages,
medians, standard deviations or correlations, or build graphs from. You may have to rely on someone
else’s data summary, which is ok too as long as you interpret their summary correctly. But as long as
there is some kind of data, you can write about it.
One thing I want you to be able to do in this course is think critically about what data tells you and what
it doesn’t tell you. When you are out there in the real world you will encounter a lot of people,

particularly salespeople and politicians, who are trying to convince you of something that isn’t true, and
often they will do it using data. Our job as honest statisticians is to recognize when data is being
interpreted incorrectly or selectively and to correct the record. And likewise, you will need to be able to
create honest arguments about the world using data.
In this paper, you will have to do/answer the following:
1. Data: Describe the data. Where did it come from? How many data points are there? What does
each data point represent? Is there anything important I should know about the data?
2. Meaning: What conclusions can we draw from the data? Why is it interesting? Is there anything
counterintuitive about these conclusions?
3. Follow-up: Does the data raise any new questions? What other data might you want to look at
that would shed light on it? What is the follow up research that should be done?
You may not have to answer all of those, but #1 is absolutely mandatory. If you don’t say anything
about where the data came from, you will get the lowest possible grade.
You will also have to provide any relevant background information if your topic is something the average
person doesn’t know anything about. For example, if you write that the average student received a
grade of 60 on an exam, that doesn’t do me any good unless I know that the passing score was 75. (In
that case, maybe the average score is not the important data point?) If you write about the changing
migration patterns of the Rhodothraupis Celaeno, you had better mention that this is a species of bird.

That kind of thing…
Since you can pick any topic you want, I’m hoping that this will be kind of fun and something you won’t
need to research too deeply. This shouldn’t take more than like 2-3 hours.
Tips
• Charts and graphs can be incredibly helpful to make data more understandable, but they need
to be done well. Here are some pointers on including them:
o If you include a graph, you probably don’t need to place the data in a table next to the
graph. That’s redundant. If you can’t make the point with the graph alone, you probably
don’t need the graph.
o If you’re working with MS Word or whatever, you need to make sure that the chart fits
will in the layout of the paper, and that when I open the document it won’t mysteriously
change. If the chart extends off the page, I’m going to take off points.
o Be sure to include labels on your charts for anything important. Unlabeled charts will be
judged harshly.
• Re-read your paper before you hand it in, and pretend you don’t know anything about the topic
when you do. If your paper has obviously not been proofread, it will get a low score.
Requirements
• Use some kind of data. If you have access to the data itself, that’s probably better because it
gives you more flexibility, but not necessarily as long as you know enough about the data to say
something interesting. It can be data you gathered yourself, data that is published by a website
or government bureau or non-profit, or it can be data that someone else has written about, for
example in a study.

• Cite your sources, especially data sources. If you use data that you gathered yourself, that is
cool—but be prepared to provide it if I ask for it.
• If you decide to write a summary of an article, you had better say something interesting other
than just repeating the article.
• Obey the Code of Academic Integrity. Obviously plagiarism is not acceptable, but “borderline”
plagiarism is also not acceptable. You can expect that I will look up any sources you cite.
• There is no minimum length, but I would expect it to take you at least 1.5-2 pages to do justice
to the data set (excluding charts & graphs, if you have any).
• The maximum length is 5 pages.
• Format: Submit your paper in the assignment folder on Moodle in either PDF or MS Word
Compatible document format (PDF preferred). Save it as “NETID_Stat100_Paper” with your Net
ID in place of NETID, and with the appropriate document extension (.doc, .pdf, .docx…,
whatever).
o Note that if it is not a PDF, I will be opening it with MS Word, so if your format does not
render will in MS Word you should use a different format. All computer labs on campus
have MS Word and MS Office is available in the webstore to students at a very low
price.
Some Possible Topics
• Sports. Sports are nice because they have plenty of data widely available. One good website is
www.baseball-reference.com (it has sister sites for the other major sports).
• The Economy. NBER is the major gatherer of economic data, but there are others also.
• Write a critical review of another paper, article or blog post. Decide whether you agree or
disagree with the conclusions of the author and say why. Mention whether there are other
interesting data points the author didn’t mention that support or contradict his or her thesis.
• Write a survey on some topic and poll people. If you do this, you’ll have to ask at least 5
questions and get at least 25 responses.
o Note: I used to do this for a living, and it’s a lot harder than it sounds. You have to set up
the questions in advance based precisely on what you are interested in, and there’s
nothing worse than finishing an expensive survey and realizing you asked the wrong
question.
o Also, if you decide to do this, I expect a lot of details on how you gathered this data.
Gathering data is a hard process, so I am acutely sensitive to fake data.
• Anything else that interests you.
Grading
The grading will be on a scale of 0 to 5. Here is roughly what I have in mind for the grades:
0. Paper does not cite data sources or does not give any description of the data. No substantial
discussion of the data, minimal numbers given.
1. Paper gives only minimal and non-substantive discussion of the data and does not discuss the
background or implication of any data points mentioned. Not coherently written or missing
important background.
2. Paper gives some data points and pairs them with appropriate background but does not discuss
their importance or implication. No follow up questions are discussed. Paper lacks an
identifiable thesis.

3. Paper discusses data, background and implications but does so poorly. Points are selfcontradictory
or obvious follow-up questions are missed. Thesis statement is not supported by
the data discussed. No additional presentation of the data is provided.
4. Paper discusses the data sources and gives background, explains implications and discusses
follow-up questions and research but has at least one significant problem. Either implications
are not clear from background and data points, follow-up discussion is unrelated or at least one
obvious counterpoint is not mentioned.
5. Paper proceeds clearly from background and data sources to data points and implications to
follow-up questions or related research. Data is summarized neatly and succinctly, possibly with
original charts or graphs. No obvious counterpoint is unacknowledged. Thesis statement is
coherent and writing quality is good.
As you can see (hopefully), all I want you to do is to write a coherent expository or argumentative essay
that uses some data. If it’s a good essay and the data is used appropriately, you’ll probably do well.
I will allow you to revise your paper if you are not happy with the grade, but if you want that option you
will have to provide it to me at least three weeks early.
Due Date: Friday, May 9 at 11:55 PM
• Please use the assignment dropbox on Moodle. Note that I don’t know how the seconds timer
works on Moodle, so don’t try and cut that close. Since this is for extra credit, late submissions
will not be accepted under any circumstances.
Note: if you would like the opportunity to revise your paper based on my feedback before
submitting it for the final grade, you may do so. However, in that case I will need the first draft by
Friday, April 18. I will get it back to you at least a week before the final due date. (Hopefully, if I don’t
then I’ll make sure you have enough time to revise.)
Questions
I will be posting a discussion board in the folder for questions about the paper, so please ask any
questions in there.