Introductory Textbooks: A Framework for Evaluation.

According to the author, this article grows out of a strong conviction on three points: first, statistics is fundamentally and primarily concerned with analyzing real data, second, data analysis, including inference, is both intellectually challenging and intrinsically interesting, and third, until recently, most authors of introductory statistics textbooks have managed to do a superb job of concealing from their readers the truth of the first two points. Fortunately, the last decade has seen the arrival of a number of innovative introductory textbooks, so the author now find it much more reasonable than in the past to apply high standards in judging an elementary book, according to him. In preparing this article, the author had tried to present these standards systematically; he uses them as an organizing frame for comparing 11 new books with 5 favorites from the past 10 years, according to him. Taken together these textbooks offer the instructor choices as to (a) technical level and quality of exposition, (b) topics covered, and (c) quality of the exercises.