Book excerpt: First Steps in Research and Statistics is a new, very accessible approach to learning about quantitative methods. No previous knowledge or experience is assumed and every stage of the research process is covered. Key topics include: * Formulating your research questions * How to choose the right statistical test for your research design * Important research issues, such as questionnaire design, ethics, sampling, reliability and validity * Conducting simple statistics to explore relationships and differences in your data * Using statistics to explore relationships and differences in your data * Writing up your research report and presenting statistics Simple and helpful worksheets and flow diagrams guide you through the research stages. Each chapter contains exercises with answers to check whether you've understood.