Review
Reviews of the previous edition
"Do you think SPSS manuals are generally far more cumbersome than they need to be? Do your students find learning SPSS for Windows from a manual a time-consuming ordeal? A Crash Course in SPSS for Windows enables students to learn the package quickly and painlessly, provided they have some background knowledge of statistics. Why use A Crash Course in SPSS for Windows? This clear, explicit and user-friendly text enables most users to learn the basics comfortably within ten hours and makes it enjoyable." (Gnist Akademika, 26 November 2001)
"I have taken several classes that have used SPSS. When I started taking these classes I had little to no knowledge about statistics. It was extremely frustrating to understand the texts that were put out by SPSS. After reviewing this book, I have a clear understanding of how to use SPSS. It made the difficult task of understanding the output simple. SPSS is intuitive, in the sense that it is simple to pick a test and run it. However, understanding which particular piece of data is of interest to you is not intuitive. This book helps clear up the jungle of data that you have to trek through to come up with your conclusion." (Amazon.com reader)
Reviews of this edition
"Reading the book is made considerably easier due to its neat layout and a contents page which lets the reader turn to the appropriate section with ease.The chapters all have a cover page explaining what the chapter will include and when reading through the chapters the readers eye is immediately drawn to the key points which are highlighted using a darker font. Bullet points allow the reader to follow the steps to figuring out the procedure with considerable ease and they are written in a way that is coherent and makes the process less complex.
With its spacious layout making it easy to read and the ring binder finish allowing pages to be accessed more effectively this book is successful in demonstrating how to use SPSS to interpret, analyse and draw up results using a variety of different tests." Marianne Bigg, BPS Student Rep.
“This textbook provides an inexpensive and quick way to become familiar with SPSS. True to its title, the book presents an abbreviated introduction to SPSS without being brusque. The authors expect novices to be able to complete the book in under 10 hours. For those familiar with the Windows operating system and spreadsheet programs (e.g., Excel), the material can completed in a few hours less. . . . Overall, the book delivers a quick and easy to follow introduction to SPSS suitable for novices.” (J. Wade Davis in The American Statistician, February 2007, Vol. 61, No. 1, p. 99)
Book Description
This simple, user-friendly introduction to SPSS for Windows has now been updated so that it can be used with Versions 10 and 11 of the software, and includes two completely new chapters on log-linear analysis and factor analysis. A new supporting website allows users to download the datasets used in the book direct from the internet. The second edition has been greatly improved in the light of feedback from usability trials but retains all of the features that have made the text so attractive to students and teachers: The material is concise and focused, enabling most users to learn the basics comfortably in about 10 easy hours. All the most widely used statistical techniques and graphic facilities in SPSS for Windows are clearly described. Every statistical procedure is explained with the help of a step-by-step analysis of a numerical example. All computational examples are taken from real data from published research. The authors have chosen small data sets to prevent the task of inputting the data becoming boring. Screen dumps on the page make it easy for students to cross between the text and the screen. For complete beginners, the first two chapters describe the basic features of Windows and explain how to get the SPSS package up and running. The second edition continues to enable students to learn the package quickly and painlessly, assuming they have some understanding of statistical methods.Online support material to accompany this text is available at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/corston
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
