Track 14 · Practical Data Analysis · Lesson 10 of 11
Writing an analysis report
Write an analysis report whose results carry their uncertainty and whose limitations and recommendation follow honestly from the evidence.
A sales manager asks whether small-business customers are worth a dedicated account team. She will read one page, probably on her phone. If that page buries the answer, overstates certainty or hides the fact that 16 spend values were missing, a good analysis turns into a bad decision.
An analysis report is not a diary of everything you tried. It is an argument: here is the question, here is the evidence, here is how sure we are, and here is what we recommend. A reader should be able to stop after the first paragraph and still know the answer.
The Report tab in the lab uses eight sections. They work for almost any analysis, from a quick memo to a formal study.
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It has 8 graded exercises with feedback, hints and worked solutions. After it you will be able to:
- Structure a report as question, data, method, assumptions, results, interpretation, limitations and recommendation
- Report every key result as an estimate with an interval and an effect size in meaningful units
- Write specific limitations that say how they could change the conclusion
- Size a recommendation to the strength of the evidence and state the condition or next step