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4: Short Report on Continuous vs. Continuous Variable

WORTH: 5% of class mark

FORMAT: Short report as per instructions below, maximum of 2 pages including up to 2 tables and/or figures (i.e. 1 table and 1 figure, 2 tables, or 2 figures). Font size must be 12 point. I will not mark anything after the end of the second page. This is completely doable within two pages.

DUE: February 10, 2015. A hard copy is due at the beginning of class. Late assignments will not be accepted.

RETURN: I will have these marked and ready for you in the OEH seminar on February 13, 2015. I will scan your assignment for you if you are not going to be in the seminar.

Instructions

  • Choose a method for dealing with radon concentrations <LOD
  • Choose a subset of your data that you think might be more interesting than the entire dataset
  • Choose a continuous variable from the radon dataset OR from another source that can be added to the radon dataset to compare with the continuous radon concentrations
  • Formulate a hypothesis about the association between that variable and radon concentrations based on what you know about radon and the peer-reviewed literature
  • Explore your hypothesis using scatter plots, correlation coefficients, and simple linear regression
  • Write a very short report on your results using the same type of format you would find in most peer-reviewed journals, as per the instructions below
  • I do not care whether or not you can demonstrate a statistically significant association between the variables, null results are perfectly acceptable

Short report

  • INTRODUCTION: should provide background for why you are conducing this analysis, and should include your hypothesis about the relationship between radon and the variable you have chosen. You must include at least one citation to the peer-reviewed literature that supports the thinking behind your hypothesis.
  • METHODS: describe the methods that you used to evaluate the association between radon and your chosen variables.
  • RESULTS: describe the results of your analyses with the assistance of tables and figures, if necessary. Tables and figures should be properly labelled and referenced in the text. It is preferable that you structure your report as elegantly as possible. This means that you describe the result and refer to the table or figure in parentheses following that description. For example, I would like to see “The mean radon concentration for category 1 was XX.X Bq/m3 compared with XX.X Bq/m3 in category 2 (Table 1)” rather than this “Table 1 summarizes the mean radon concentrations in each category”. Most good journals will not accept the latter, as it does not provide a flowing narrative for the reader because they must go look at the table to get the information necessary to interpret the rest of the paper.
  • DISCUSSION: what did you find and what does it mean? Please end with a concluding statement about the relationship between the variables in your data.

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