Introductory statistics, Mann, Prem S.

• Increased emphasis on more idiomatic R provides a grounding in the functionality of base R.
• Discussions of the use of RStudio helps new R users avoid as many pitfalls as possible.
• Use of knitr package makes code easier to read and therefore easier to reason about.
• Additional information on computer-intensive approaches motivates the traditional approach.
• Updated examples and data make the information current and topical.

The book has an accompanying package, UsingR, available from CRAN, R's repository of user-contributed packages. The package contains the data sets mentioned in the text (data(package="UsingR")), answers to selected problems (answers()), a few demonstrations (demo()), the errata (errata()), and sample code from the text.

The topics of this text line up closely with traditional teaching progression; however, the book also highlights computer-intensive approaches to motivate the more traditional approach. The authors emphasize realistic data and examples and rely on visualization techniques to gather insight. They introduce statistics and R seamlessly, giving students the tools they need to use R and the information they need to navigate the sometimes complex world of statistical computing.

Concepts are motivated, illustrated, and explained in a way that attempts to increase one's intuition. To quote from the preface, it is only when a student develops a feel or intuition for statistics that she or he is really on the path toward making sense of data. Ross achieves this goal through a coherent mix of mathematical analysis, intuitive discussions, and examples.

Applications and examples refer to real-world issues, such as gun control, stock price models, health issues, driving age limits, school admission ages, use of helmets, sports, scientific fraud, and many others. Examples relating to data mining techniques using the number of Google queries or Twitter tweets are also considered.

For this fourth edition, new topical coverage includes sections on Pareto distribution and the 80-20 rule, Benford's law, added material on odds and joint distributions and correlation, logistic regression, A-B testing, and more modern (big data) examples and exercises.