Business Administration Project

Instructions and Guidelines for the Project

For the statistics project, you address some questions that interest you with the statistical methodology you learned.  Student will choose the research question; decide how to collect data; and do the analyses.  The questions can address almost any topic (subject to my approval), including topics in economics, psychology, sociology, natural science, medicine, public policy, sports, law, etc.

The project requires you to synthesize all the material from the course.  Hence, it’s one of the best ways to solidify your understanding of statistical methods and to demonstrate your competency.

– The first phase will be your project proposal – a single page summary of your intended study and project goals with a project title.

– The last phase will be your final report, that will cover all the steps in a given final report format provided below.  This phase will also include your 20-min project presentation (recorded).

Guide to Final Report Writing

Executive Summary (one page of brief description of the study and conclusion)

I. Introduction (Objectives)

• What is the research question?
• Why is the research question?
• What is the type of study?  (observational or experimental)
• What is the population of interest?
• State the general research hypothesis

II. Methods

• Describe data collection procedures and sampling methods
• Describe statistical methods used for the analysis, also include the statistical software used for the analysis
• Discuss limitations of data collection procedure

III. Results

Descriptive Statistics

• Numeric Summary
  • Discrete variables: frequency, percent, contingency tables, etc.
  • Continuous variables: mean, SD, Q1, Q3, etc.
• Visual Summary
  • Bar Chart, Histogram, Side by Side Box Plots, Scatter Plots, Probability Plots, etc.

(Must properly label each table and figure.)

Inferential Statistics

• Hypothesis Testing
  • State general research hypothesis
  • Report p-value of the test
• Confidence Interval Estimation
• Verification of the assumptions behind the statistical inference procedures
• Interpret results
• Attach tables and/or graphs make reference to them in the report when necessary

IV. Conclusions

• Summarize Results
• Discuss limitations of study
• Discuss possible further research

V. Reference: List of references cited in your paper

VI. Appendix: Show the null hypothesis, alternative hypothesis, test statistic value and p-value for the test used in the analysis results section. You may copy and paste the output from the statistical software that you used for the analysis in this section. It is usually not reported in the professional report or article. You are doing it to show the instructor additional information from your analysis.