Welcome to the website for Stat 5421/Stat 8421, Analysis of Categorical Data, for fall 2006! This is an applied statistics course that will emphasize understanding and doing data analysis, not doing proofs. You should expect two exams plus a final, and frequent homework assignments. To take Stat 5421, you should have completed either a mathematical statistics sequence or applied statistics at the level of Stat 5021. If you have any questions if this course is right for you, ask me!

The textbook for this course is Categorical Data Analysis, 2nd Edition, by Alan Agresti. Here is the link to a description of this book at amazon.com. Students generally like this book, and I'm looking forward to using it to teach.

If you wish, you can download, and print S-PLUS (and R) Manual to Accompany Agresti’s Categorical Data Analysis (2002) 2nd edition by Laura A. Thompson, 2006. This supplement to Agresti's book explains how to do everything in the book using R. Most of this material will be presented in class as well.

What's the difference between 5421 and 8421? The course number 8421 is intended primarily for statistics graduate students who may not be able to get credit for Stat 5xxx courses. Students enrolled for 8421 will be expected to do a few extra more theoretical homework problems, and will be asked to complete a project at the end of the course.

Some course materials are available in the "Portable Document Format" (PDF), which can be viewed and printed by using Acrobat Reader software. Versions of Acrobat Reader for most computing platforms may obtained for free from Adobe Inc.