From the authors of the bestselling The Practice of Statistics comes an ideal alternative for those students not going into high-level courses such as calculus but who are interested in an introduction to the important topics of statistics. The book's data analysis approach moves students away from monotonous computation to focus on the statistical thinking behind data gathering and interpretation. This approach more accurately reflects the way working statisticians contribute to our understanding of the world. It also helps students be more discerning consumers of statistics, teaching them to look closely at what the numbers from surveys, election pools and medical studies are really saying.