Week 2, October 2: Analysis – Introduction

Pre-class reading

• SQL: The Prequel (Excel vs. Databases), by Noah Veltman, 2013
• 10 tools that can help data journalists do better work, be more efficient, by Troy Thibodeaux, 2011
• Death on the Tracks: Questions Raised on Signals at Rail Crossings, by Walt Bogdanich et al., 2004
• More Killings Called Self-Defense, by Joe Palazzolo and Rob Barry, 2012

What we’ll cover

• Overview of the types of basic analysis, from counting to correlations, you can do on almost any dataset.
• Analysis using spreadsheet software.
• Analysis using database software.

Post-class assignments

• Much like last week, find a new dataset and interview it, taking notes. Then, using any of the techniques we learned in class, do some basic analysis on the data: maximums, minimums, counts, sums, averages, et cetera. Write about what you found, what worked, what didn’t work, what conclusions you can draw, and any problems you encountered with the data.
• CodeCademy Web Fundamentals: HTML Basics II
• CodeCademy Web Fundamentals: HTML Basics III