Data Literacy: A User's Guide

We are swimming in a world of data, and this handy guide will keep students afloat while they learn to make sense of it all. David Herzog, a journalist with more than 15 years of experience using data analysis to transform information into captivating storytelling, introduces readers to the fundamentals of data literacy. Assuming the reader has no advanced knowledge of data analysis or statistics, the book shows how to create insight from publicly-available data. Extensively illustrated, step-by-step instructions within a concise, yet comprehensive, reference will help readers to master:

What data is and what it isn't,

How to develop a "database set of mind,"

How to gather data, How to evaluate data,

How to clean up "dirty data,"

How to visualize data, and

How to use tools for data analysis and visualization.