Data Preparation for Analysis

1
Data Preparation for Analysis

• Chapter 11

2
Editing

• The inspection and correction of the data
  received from each element of the sample.

3
Editing

• Incomplete Answers
• What to do?
• General rule
• Wrong Answers
• Dog food example
• Bookstore example
• Answers that Reflect Lack of Interest
• Examples

4
Coding

• Transforming raw data into symbols
• Closed-ended items
• Genders
• Scales

5
Coding

• Open-ended items
• Factual
• Examples
• Exploratory open-ended
• Use more than one coder
• Go through questionnaire and highlight responses
• Specify the categories in which responses are to
  be placed
• Code responses into categories
• Compare results between coders

6
Coding

• Building the data file
• The Codebook
• Variable name
• How coded
• How to treat missing data

7
Cleaning the Data

• Blunders
• An error that arises during editing, coding, or
  data entry
• How to find
• Checking
• Double-entry
• Optical scanning

8
Handling Missing Data

• Item Nonresponse
• What to do?
• Eliminate entire case
• Eliminate case from analysis with that variable
• Substitute missing values
• Contact the respondent