Abstract:
Writing a dictionary of statistics is one thing – writing a practical dictionary of statistics
is another. The entries had to be useful, not merely accurate. Accuracy is not that
useful on its own. One aspect of the practicality of this dictionary is in facilitating the
learning of statistical techniques and concepts. The dictionary is not intended to stand
alone as a textbook – there are plenty of those. We hope that it will be more important
than that. Perhaps only the computer is more useful. Learning statistics is a complex
business. Inevitably, students at some stage need to supplement their textbook. A trip
to the library or the statistics lecturer’s office is daunting. Getting a statistics dictionary
from the shelf is the lesser evil. And just look at the statistics textbook next to it –
you probably outgrew its usefulness when you finished the first year at university.
Few readers, not even ourselves, will ever use all of the entries in this dictionary.
