Data Management Discussion

The purpose of this assignment is to practice organizing data through ordering and grouping variables.

Data often appear disordered and it is difficult to see any connections or relationships. Ordering the data by certain variables or grouping variables into specific categories, such as age or sex categories, can help bring clarity to the data. Knowing how to organize data is an important skill to initiate the analytical process.

For this assignment, students will use Excel and SPSS Statistics to order variables. Using the “Example Dataset,” complete the steps below using both Excel and SPSS Statistics. View the Excel and SPSS tutorials for assistance in completing this assignment. Submit one Word document and include a screen shot of the data after completing the first two steps of Part 1 in Excel and SPSS to compare your results. Use a second Word document to complete Part 2 of the assignment.

Part 1: Ordering and Grouping Data Using Excel and SPSS

For Part 1, accomplish the following:

Order (sort) observations according to age.
Group observations by sex and investigate the age and income for males and females.
Create a new variable titled “Exercise Group” based on the variable “Minutes Exercise.” Use the following categories to create your groups: 1 = 0-30 minutes; 2 = 31-60 minutes; 3 = 61-90 minutes; 4 = 91-120 minutes; and 5 = 120+ minutes.
Part 2: Data Interpretation

Study the results of the dataset grouping and ordering. Discuss the following in a 500-750 word summary:

Describe the measurement levels for each of the variables in the dataset.
Discuss what you learned from ordering the data by age and why this information is important.
Describe the process you used to group the data in Excel and SPSS.
Describe what you learned by grouping the variables by category of exercise.
Are these data from a correlational study, experimental study, or quasi-experimental (observational) study? Discuss your rationale and identify a study question appropriate for this dataset.
General Requirements

Submit the Word document to the instructor.

APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

ORDER CUSTOM, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.