Elementary Statstics

1.1.1.2 Organization

Data collected from published sources are generally in organized form. However, a large mass of figures that the collected from a survey frequently needs organization. The first step in organizing a mass of data is editing. The collected data must be edited very carefully so that the omissions, inconsistencies, irrelevant answers and wrong computation in the returns from a survey may be corrected or adjusted. After the data have been edited the next step is to classify them. Classification is the process of arranging the data according to some common characteristics possessed by the items constituting the data. The last step in organization is tabulation. The object of tabulation is to arrange the data in columns and rows so that there is absolute clarity in the data presented.