ABSTRACT
Once the data have been collected and arranged in the ways that have been described in the preceding chapters, the analysis stage of the project can begin. The first stages of quantitative analysis will vary from project to project, and from historian to historian, but it is safe to say that it is likely that at an early stage the historian will need to make use of the methods of descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics are those statistical methods primarily concerned with the organization and presentation of data; they are sometimes contrasted with other methods called analytic statistics, but the distinction is a false one, and will not be used in this book. The descriptive statistics that we shall be considering are as much a part of the analysis of data as are more advanced statistical methods.
