After many years of sacrifice, you come to the thesis phase of the program. The thesis has a requirement to demonstrate an ability to analyze data. Eventually you come to the realization that you need help with the analysis phase of your thesis. Now here is where things get a little hairy. The statistics tutor/consultant can analyze your data but always remember …it is your thesis. It is your job as the author to know the analysis. Because only YOU will be standing before your thesis committee in YOUR oral defense. No…wait I don’t think that was clear enough so let me express this another way. Someone may ask you why a statistical method was chosen over another one; why you didn’t illustrate the graph a particular way; why only a subset of your subjects were analyzed; and what issues you had with the data.Know your stuff. I mean down to the equal sign on slide 3.
A lot of times, statisticians are willing to analyze data that is not their specialty. So you can not just hand over your data to a complete stranger and hope for the best. Since you have done the background research, you and the statistician should be communicating regularly in order to produce a solid submission.
It’s not our thesis it’s your thesis…
More Blogs to follow-Amy
