A Microsoft Excel® Companion to Political Analysis

Philip H. Pollock III is a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. He has taught courses in research methods at the undergraduate and graduate levels for more than thirty years. His main research interests are American public opinion, voting behavior, techniques of quantitative analysis, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. His recent research has been on the effectiveness of Internet-based instruction. Pollock’s research has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Social Science Quarterly, and the British Journal of Political Science. Recent scholarly publications include articles in Political Research Quarterly, the Journal of Political Science Education, and PS: Political Science and Politics.Barry C. Edwards writes textbooks and works for Fair Trial Analysis, LLC, a company that conducts research on juries and jurors for civil and criminal litigation. He received his B.A. from Stanford University, a J.D. from New York University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. He taught survey design and analysis, research methods, and prelaw courses at the University of Central Florida and continues to teach occasional courses for the University of Georgia. His political science interests include American politics, public law, and research methods. He founded the Political Science Data Group and created the PoliSciData.com website. His research has been published in American Politics Research, Congress & the Presidency, Election Law Journal, Emory Law Journal, Georgia Bar Journal, Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Journal of Politics, NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, Political Research Quarterly, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Public Management Review, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, and UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review.

This text is a welcoming addition to the political analysis companions series by Pollock and colleagues. Its lucid writing style, hands-onpedagogical approach, and ample carefully curated examples and exercises will be appreciated by research methods instructorsand students alike. It really teaches the students how to conduct empirical political analysis using Microsoft Excel.

• Chapter 1 Using Excel for Data AnalysisChapter 2 Descriptive StatisticsChapter 3 Transforming VariablesChapter 4 Making ComparisonsChapter 5 Graphing Relationships and Describing PatternsChapter 6 Random Assignment and SamplingChapter 7 Making Controlled ComparisonsChapter 8 Working with Sampling DistributionsChapter 9 Hypothesis Tests with One or Two SamplesChapter 10 Chi-Square Test and Analysis of VarianceChapter 11 Correlation and Bivariate RegressionChapter 12 Multiple Regression AnalysisChapter 13 Analyzing Regression ResidualsChapter 14 Logistic RegressionChapter 15 Doing Your Own Political Analysis