Business statistics project

Data Analysis Project Report Guidelines

Guidelines for the style and the content for the report

General expectations: The report will be text format that consists of paragraphs. I expect you to write

everything in a logical flow and with proper English.

Style: Normal Ms Word margins, 1.15 line spacing, Times New Roman, Font size 12, No space before/after

paragraphs

Timeline:

October 23, 2018, 11:30 pm: Interim reports (including all descriptive statistics)

November 27, 2018, 11:30 pm: Full reports (including all applicable tests, correlations, regressions)

Undergraduate research symposium will be held in the first week of December (exact date TBD). The

details for the poster presentations for the interested groups will be provided later. The selected projects

will get full credit (given that they followed instructor’s recommendations to improve the project) from the

project, and will get 2 bonus points to their final grades.

Presentations will start December 4 (the class prior to the last one)

Data sets:

You can use any data set as long as it is related to business and carry the following characteristics; at least

4 numerical variables excluding demographic variables, at least three categorical variables excluding

demographic variables. The datasets must be approved by the instructor.

You can use the links provided in the presentation or you can use your own company data. If you have

difficulty to find a dataset, let the instructor know to get help.

Please make sure that you transform/delete sensitive personal/company data before you upload them to

LIVE for approval.

Title Page

Table of contents

List of figures

List of tables

Abstract or Summary

Abstracts are brief (50 words) summaries typically found in research reports. They generally address a

technical audience and concisely present key information about the study, its methodology, its principal

results, and their significance.

Introduction (1-2 pages)

The introduction should describe the purpose of the report, the research methods, and the organization of

the report. It should provide the reader with the necessary background information about why the report

was written. Here, you should give information about the dataset you analyzed. The introduction should

also generate interest in the report.

Note that the introduction may be followed by related sections or subsections, including

 Objectives of the study (often formatted as a list of “To…” points)

 The benefits of studying this problem to you, and to other stakeholders

 Scope (indicating what your analysis includes and excludes) and the significance of your study

 Background (e.g., about the problem or organization being discussed)

Body of the report (~10-15 pages)

The body of the report should include all the relevant information you have gathered and you want to

present your audience. You need to present your findings along with the supporting information and

analysis. Use illustrations such as charts and graphs to support your results. Organize this section using

headings (centered) and subheadings (left justified). In the body of the report, the authors

 present, interpret, and discuss their findings in a series of sections with informative headings and

subheadings (e.g., "Environmental Concerns"; “Economic Considerations”) rather than the more

generic "Findings")

 present findings clearly and coherently, with a brief introduction to each section

 refrain from presenting conclusions and recommendations

 include properly formatted citations for all information taken from sources

 make sure they use the statistical tools covered in class (where applicable) such as, including but

not limited to,

o mean, median, mode, standard deviations

o frequency tables, histograms,

o five number summary, box plots,

o graphs covered in class and homework assignments, plus at least wo other type that is not

covered in class and homework assignments

o PIVOT tables and graphs,

o confidence intervals,

o one sample/two sample tests,

o scatter plots and correlations,

o Regressions

o Any additional topic covered in class

 try to avoid using graphs conveying information about a single variable (e.g., a bar graph showing

the percentages of males and females in a class), instead use loaded graphs (e.g., a bar graph

comparing percentages of males and females who are in SM, ACC, and MGT majors in a class)

 interpret all of the reported numerical measures and graphical techniques.

Conclusions + Recommendations (1-2 pages)

Briefly and clearly state your findings or conclusions. Depending on your objective, your conclusions will

vary. For example, if your purpose was to evaluate the use of Six Sigma procedures in PA, you may

conclude that because of the increasing number of companies adopting this approach, it is vitally important

for the companies to improve their quality control procedures. However, if your purpose was to investigate

competitors' products and services, your conclusions would briefly describe the relevant products on the

market. The conclusions

 summarize the most important findings in the report and indicate their significance (answering the

reader’s implied question “so what”)

 include only conclusions that flow from the data and discussion presented

 show how the report's objectives have been met

 refrain from introducing new information

Provide recommendations for further action in addition to your findings or conclusions. For example, you

may propose changes to the quality control procedures. Be sure to justify your recommendations.

 Suggest actions that should be taken or considered in light of the report’s conclusions,

 present recommendations in a numbered list (if there are several).

If you need to cite any source, use APA style for in text citations.

References: Use APA style.

Appendices (if any)

This guideline is adapted from http://www.cgu.edu/pages/852.asp and http://efwr.ucalgary.ca