Chapter Two

Methods of Data Collection and Presentation

2.1 Methods of Data Collection

Based on source statistical data can be classified as

1.Primary data: data measured or collected by the investigator or the user directly from the source

Primary data can be obtained:

 interviews

 observations

 laboratory experiments

 Questionnaires etc.
 Conti …
2.Secondary Data: when an investigator uses data, which have already been collected by others,

such data are called "Secondary Data

The secondary data can be obtained from

 journals,

 reports,

 government records,

 publications of professionals and research organizations.

NB: Primary data are more expensive than secondary data.

Data which are primary for one may be secondary for the other.
 2.2 Methods of Data Presentation

Having collected and edited data, the next important step is to organize it.

To present it in readily understandable, and condensed form in order to draw inference.

The presentation of data is broadly classified in to the following three categories

 Tabular presentation

 Diagrammatic

 Graphic presentation

Tabular presentation: Data is presented by using Frequency distribution.

 Arranging data in to classes or categories according to similarities is called classification

Frequency: is the number of times a certain value or asset of values occurs in specific group
Conti..

Frequency distribution: is a table that presents data according to some criteria with the corresponding

number of items following in each class (i.e. with the corresponding frequencies)

Example: Frequency distribution presenting the number of males and females in class

Sex Frequency
Male 57
Female 39
Total 96
There are 3 types of Frequency distribution, those are:

Categorical Frequency distribution

Ungrouped Frequency distribution

Grouped Frequency distribution

1. Categorical Frequency distribution :in this frequency distribution the data are usually qualitative and the scale of

measurement for the data are usually nominal or ordinal.

For instance

 data on blood type of people

 economical status (low, medium and high)

Example: a social worker collected the following data on marital status for 25 persons.(M=married,

S=single, W=widowed, D=divorced

MSDWDSSMMMWDSMMWDDSSSWWDD

We follow procedure to construct the frequency distribution

 Make a table as shown

 Tally the data and place the result

 Count the tally and place the result

 Find the percentages of values in each class by using

𝒇
% = *100 , where f = frequency of the class, n = total number of value.
𝒏

Combing the entire steps one can construct the frequency distribution
 Conti…
class tally frequency percent
M |||| 5 20
S |||| || 7 28
D |||| || 7 28
W |||| | 6 24

2. Ungrouped Frequency distribution: Ungrouped frequency distribution is often constructed for small set or

data on discrete variable.

Steps for constructing ungrouped frequency distribution:

 First find the smallest and largest raw score in the collected data.

 Arrange the data in order of magnitude and count the frequency.

 Make a table as shown

 Tally the data.

 Compute the frequency

3. Grouped Frequency Distribution: Another way of arranging data is by grouping the observations into

intervals and tabulating the frequencies for each intervals

used when the range of the data is large, several numbers are grouped into one class.

Definition of some basic terms

Class limits (CL): It separate one class from another

Unit of measure (U): This is the possible difference between successive values. E.g. 1, 0.1, 0.01, 0.001, etc.

Class boundaries: Separate one class in a grouped frequency distribution from the other.

There is no gap between the upper boundaries of one class and the lower boundaries of the succeeding class

 Lower class boundary is found by subtracting half of the unit of measure from the lower class limit

 upper class boundary is found by adding half unit measure to the upper class limit.
Class width (W): The difference between the upper and lower boundaries of any consecutive class.

Class mark (Midpoint): is the average of the lower and upper class limits or the average of upper and

lower class boundary

Cumulative frequency: It is the number of observation less than or greater than the upper class boundary

of class.

CF (Less than type): it is the number of values less than the upper class boundary of a given class.

CF (Greater than type): it is the number of values greater than the lower class boundary of a given class.

Relative frequency (Rf ): The frequency divided by the total frequency.

𝑓𝑖
𝑅𝑓𝑖 = ,where 𝑓𝑖 is the frequency of the 𝑖 𝑡ℎ class and n =total number of observation or items.
𝑛
 Steps for constructing Grouped frequency Distribution

 Find the largest and smallest values

 Compute the Range(R) = Maximum - Minimum

 Select the number of classes desired, usually between 5 and 20

use Sturges rule 𝑘 = 1 + 3.32log(n)

Where: k is number of classes desired and n is total number of observation.

𝑅
 Find the class width by dividing the range by the number of classes and rounding up 𝑤 =
𝑘

 Pick the minimum value. The starting point is called the lower limit of the first class

 Continue to add the class width to this lower limit to get the rest of the lower limits.
Conti..

 To find the upper limit of the first class, subtract 𝑈 from the lower limit of the second class

i.e. UCL=LCL-U

 Then continue to add the class width to this upper limit to find the rest of the upper limits.

 Find the boundaries by subtracting U/2 units from the lower limits and adding U/2 units from the upper

limits.

𝑈
• 𝐿𝐶𝐵𝑖 = 𝐿𝐶𝐿𝑖 −
2

𝑈
• 𝑈𝐶𝐵𝑖 = 𝑈𝐶𝐿𝑖 +
2

𝑈𝐿𝑖 +𝐿𝐶𝐿𝑖 𝑈𝐶𝐵𝑖 +𝐿𝐶𝐵𝑖

 Find class mark (CM):𝐶𝑀𝐼 = =
2 2
 Find the frequencies

 Find the cumulative frequencies

 find the relative frequencies and/or relative cumulative frequencies

 Find the highest and the lowest value H=39, L=6

 Find the range; R=H-L=39-6=33

 Select the number of classes desired using Sturges formula

 Find the class width; w=R/k=33/6=5.5=6 (rounding up)

 Select the starting point, let it be the minimum observation.

6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36 are the lower class limits.

 Find the upper class limit; e.g. the first upper class=12-U=12-1=11

11, 17, 23, 29, 35, 41 are the upper class limits.

 So combining step 5 and step 6, one can construct the following classes.

 Find the class boundaries;

 E.g. for the first class: Lower class boundary = 6-U/2=5.5

Upper class boundary =11+U/2=11.5

Conti..

 Then continue adding class width (w) on both boundaries to obtain the rest boundaries

 find the class marks (CM)

 Find frequency and cumulative frequency.

 Find CF less than type and cumulative frequency more than type

 The complete frequency distribution follows

 Diagrammatic and Graphic Presentation of Data

The data presented by frequency distribution can also displayed diagrammatically or graphically.

The most convenient and popular way of describing data using graphical presentation.

It is easier to understand and interpret data when they are presented graphically than using words or a

frequency table.

 A graph can present data in a simple and clear way.

 Are techniques for presenting data in visual displays using geometric figures

 Have greater attraction than frequency distribution or numbers

 Facilitate comparison of data

 Have easily understandable by any one who does not have statistical back ground
 Diagrammatic Presentation of Data

The three most commonly used diagrammatic presentation for discrete as well as qualitative data are

 Pie charts

 Bar charts

 Pictogram

A) Pie chart :A pie chart is a circle that is divided in to sections or wedges according to the percentage of

frequencies in each category of the distribution. The angle of the sector is obtained using
Figure1. Pie chart of the population in a town
B) Bar Charts

Used to represent & compare the frequency distribution of discrete variables or attributes.

Bars can be drawn either vertically or horizontally

Usually horizontal bar diagrams are used for qualitative classified data whereas vertical bar diagram are used for

quantitative classified data

In presenting data using bar diagram,

 There are gap between bars and all bars must have equal width.

 The height or length of each bar indicates the size (frequency) of the figure represented.

There are different types of bar charts. The most common being:

 Simple bar chart

 Component or sub divided bar chart.

 Multiple bar charts.

Simple bar chart: a simple bar chart consists of horizontal or vertical bars of equal width and length proportional to the values they represent
as the base of compassion linear or one dimensional, the widths of this bars have no significance but are take to make the chart look attractive

Example: Draw a bar chart for the following coffee production data from 1990 to 1995.
Component bar chart: total (or aggregate) is divided in to its component parts, we use component bar chart.
The bars represent total value of a variable with each total broken in to its component parts and different
colors or designs are used for identifications.
 Multiple Bar charts: These are used to display data on more than one variable. They are used for

comparing different variables at the same time.

Example: Draw a multiple bar chart to represent the sales by product from 1957 to 1959.
 Graphical Presentation of Data

The histogram, frequency polygon and cumulative frequency graph or ogive is most commonly applied

graphical representation for continuous data.

Histogram: is a graph which displays the data by using adjacent vertical bars of various heights to represent

frequencies. Class marks are placed along the horizontal axes.

Example: Construct a histogram for the frequency distribution of the time spent by the automobile workers.

The frequency distribution is.

If the shape is symmetrical, then the mean, median, and mode are all the same value.

A histogram looks like A bell shape so we can say that the distribution of time spent by automobile

workers to travel home to work are approximately similar.