From media, personal experience, or the Int ern et, identify an example of each of the following sources of distortion or of interpretive error:

• a studr with questionable sponsorship or motives

• reliance on insufficient evidence

• unbalanced present ation

• deceptive framing of facts

• overestimating the level of certainty

• biased interpretation

• rationalizing

• unexamined assumptions

• faulty causal reasoning

• hasty generalization

• overstated generalization

• sanitized statistic

• meaningless statistic

• undefined average

• distorted percentage figure

• bogus ranking

• fallible computer model

• misinterpreted statistic

• deceptive reporting Hi11t: For examples offaulty (as well as correct)

statistical reasoning in the news, check out Dartmouth College's Clin11ce Project at

dartmouth.edu/-chance>.

Submit your examples to your instructor along with a memo explaining each error, and be prepared to discuss your material in class.