STATS 579 – Data Analysis Practicum

This Data Analysis Practicum is intended for graduate students in statistics who already have a comprehensive background probability, inference, and linear modeling. Our focus for this semester will be on applying the techniques you've learned in graduate school to a single real-world data analysis problem. This semester, we will be considering data on Russian twitter messages from the time of the 2016 US presidential election.

Course Information

Room: Science & Math Learning Center (SMLC), Rm. 352

Time: Tuesday & Thursday, 2:00pm – 3:15pm

Prerequisites: STATS 561 (Probability), STATS 553 (Inference), STATS 540 (Regression), STATS 545 (ANOVA)

Syllabus: dap_s19_syllabus.pdf

Course Materials & Readings

The Data Set

At the link above, you can access the original Russian tweet data as compiled by Drs. Linvill & Warren at Clemson University. The data set consists of 13 .csv files and a readme file.

538 Data Set Write-up

The data for this class were published online by the website 538 during the summer of last year. This write-up provides a basic introduction to the data and its historical context.

Linvill & Warren

A pre-publication report on the data by the researchers who collected it: Darren L. Linvill and Patrick L. Warren of Clemson University. This provides some additional context for, and information about, the data.

Consulting Slides

Dr. Christensen's presentation on statistical consulting. There are also additional readings on Type-3 errors, consulting skills, experimental planning, and professionalism for the interested student.

Dr. Erhardt's Data Cleaning Chapter

You may also find the R code Dr. Christensen used in class to be helpful. Find it here.

Dr. F. Christensen's Data Analysis Guide
Dr. R. Christensen's Regression Analysis Guide

These two short guides give you tips for how to approach a data analysis project. Mine (Fletcher's) focuses on the larger scientific context in which the analysis is conducted. Ron's focuses on the analysis itself and making sure it is done acceptably.

Giving Good Presentations (.tex)

This presentation is a guide to how to give good statistics presentations in various contexts.

Assessments

Progress Report 1

Progress Report Handout -- Due February 21st

Progress Report 2

Progress Report Handout -- Due April 2nd

Final Project Report

Final Report Handout -- Due May 10th



Fletcher G.W. Christensen

Asst. Professor of Statistics

Office: SMLC 328

Spring 2019 Office Hours:
  • Monday 2:30pm – 3:30pm
  • Tuesday 3:30pm – 4:30pm
  • Thursday 3:30pm – 4:30pm