Gary Klass, associate professor of politics and government, has recently published the second edition of his book, Just Plain Data Analysis. The book is designed to teach statistical literacy skills that students can use to evaluate and construct arguments about public affairs issues that are grounded in numerical evidence.
The book also mentions skills that are often not taught in introductory social science research methods courses and that are often covered sketchily in the research methods textbooks: where to find commonly used measures of political and social conditions; how to assess the reliability and validity of specific indicators; how to present data efficiently in charts and tables; how to avoid common misinterpretations and misrepresentations of data; and how to evaluate causal arguments based on numerical data.
This new edition has a chapter on statistical fallacies and many updates throughout. It also teaches students to find, interpret, and present information in a clearer and more practical way.