Month: December 2015

Descriptive Statistics: Essential and Indispensable in Research

Descriptive statistics gives simple summaries of the desired sample and about the different observations that are made by the researcher. They can be either quantitative or visual, whatever be the choice of the researcher. They come of use at many stages during the entire course of research. In some researches, descriptive statistics form the fundamental … Continue reading “Descriptive Statistics: Essential and Indispensable in Research”

Descriptive statistics gives simple summaries of the desired sample and about the different observations that are made by the researcher. They can be either quantitative or visual, whatever be the choice of the researcher. They come of use at many stages during the entire course of research. In some researches, descriptive statistics form the fundamental basis for initial description and as pre requisite for more extensive research. In some researches, which are simpler in nature, they may by self-sufficient for a specific investigation.

Descriptive statistics has a history that goes back a long way in the past. What I understand by extensive reading is that it first showed its presence as a basic tabulation of the census data or the economic data of the country. Its application in all kinds of research has made its place in more recent times and it is considered an indispensable part of the exploratory data analysis.

When we talk in the field of business, it offers summary of varied types of data and comes of use to particularly investors and brokers to put to use historical account of the return behaviour. It is done by performing analysis so that one is able to make wiser investing decisions can be made in the future.

What we see as the most commonly used descriptive statistics is them mean. It is a means that helps to find out the central tendency and is to be analysed with a level of coefficient. When our sample size is large, it is so said that our mean comes out to be more accurate. The mean gives us the confidence intervals and from that we can have the range of values around which we can expect the mean to be located. On important reason for carrying out descriptive statistics is that it gives us the shape of the distribution and also the frequency of the values from the many ranges of the variable that have been found.

Even when you administer the most simplest of descriptive statistics, it is going to be of use, whether you are a researcher or an organisation. It would help you to know how close your data is in being normally distributed. Skewness and Kurtosis tells us how close it is to being normally distributed.

So whatever you area of research be, look into descriptive research and find it to add value to your research and take out more concrete and sound results.

Weird Grammar Rules You Might Not Have Heard Of!!

Even if you are not a stickler for grammar, you PhD would demand from you to be immaculate in your grammar. Some scholars go forward and end up becoming grammar geeks because all the time they are busy in rectifying the grammatical errors in their writing. Here I will discuss some of the most unusual … Continue reading “Weird Grammar Rules You Might Not Have Heard Of!!”

Even if you are not a stickler for grammar, you PhD would demand from you to be immaculate in your grammar. Some scholars go forward and end up becoming grammar geeks because all the time they are busy in rectifying the grammatical errors in their writing. Here I will discuss some of the most unusual grammar rules that you must know. After knowing this you would get an eye for noticing grammatical errors in almost every document you go through from time to time.

The use of which and that: Most of the professional writers often make a mistake in the use of which and that. Most of us think that these two pronouns can be used interchangeably. But you are wrong if you so think. “That” being in the category of restrictive pronoun it becomes very important for the noun it refers to. “Which” is a more detailing pronoun relatively so cannot be used interchangeably with that.

May & Might: Same like above, a lot of people believe these words can be used interchangeably but there is a difference in their meaning. “May” is a more positive word and implies possibility while “Might” is used for showing uncertainty for a situation that may not happen most likely.

Fewer & Less: This is perhaps the most commonly broken grammar rule that we see happening everywhere. But ironically, the logic for this is very simple. The use of “less” is more appropriate for intangible and hypothetical quantities such as “fun, joy, sad” etc. while we use the word “few” and “fewer” is more appropriate for those items that can be quantified easily and are of tangible characteristics.

Effect and Affect: It is crime for writers in English if they wrongly use the two words, “affect” and “effect”. It is actually very surprising that many people get it wrong most often as the difference between the two is very basic and simple to understand. “Effect” is a noun and “Affect” is a verb. Affect is used for telling about the outcome or consequences of something.

The use of comma: The use of commas is seen mostly with adjectives and adjectives are of varied categories such as coordinate, cumulative, descriptive and so on. The rule of the use of comma at each one is different and should be considered.

So, now when you sit down with your thesis or research documentation, be more particular about the grammar and its small intricacies we generally tend to overlook.

When You Prepare for Your PhD Presentation, Have You Thought about Your Audience?

In the course of your PhD, various number of times you have be behind the podium giving presentations. You supervisor may expect from you to participate in seminars, workshops and conferences and give paper presentations. But it isn’t really certain that all these opportunities would expose you to an audience that is academic. Sometimes your … Continue reading “When You Prepare for Your PhD Presentation, Have You Thought about Your Audience?”

In the course of your PhD, various number of times you have be behind the podium giving presentations. You supervisor may expect from you to participate in seminars, workshops and conferences and give paper presentations. But it isn’t really certain that all these opportunities would expose you to an audience that is academic. Sometimes your audience may be purely non-academic and here you are prepared with a technically academic presentation in front of them, how do you deal with it?

I am going to give you certain suggestions here to deal with an audience that wouldn’t be able to relate with you r academic content. How do you keep them engrossed? Here you go:

Keep your beginning simple: It is always better to get some idea about the kind of audience you are going to deal with before you go for an event. If you are ti deal with a non-academic audience, it is necessary that your beginning is very simple and easy to understand. Jargons, difficult terminology and scientific connotations used in the beginning can sometimes put off the interest of the audience and you may not be able to bring them back into your talk throughout.

Structure out your content: you need to structure out your content in such a way that it keeps the audience involved and makes it interactive to the extent possible. Incorporating activity based small inputs can help break the monotony and generate interest of the audience in a topic that may be completely novice to them otherwise. Keep the conversations as natural as possible with minimal incorporations of technicalities is a way to not let them feel left out and neglected.

Do good ice breaking: it is important to break the ice with a set of audience who is new to you and vice versa. In the beginning if you successfully break the ice with them and put them in a comfort zone by striking a wavelength with them, they want to listen to you more. In addition to that, you also get to know what they want to hear and you can focus your talk accordingly.

Even after doing all this and more, you may not find it very easy. There would be challenges here of varied kinds and may be subjective to the nature of the audience. Primarily I can say is stay natural move around a lot, connect and win over the audience by becoming familiar and friendly.