These notes have been written to give you a readable introduction to basic statistics. The lectures will cover most (but not all) of the material in these notes, so please make an effort to read all the chapters.
There are many good books available covering all aspects of statistics. A cheap and readable introduction to univariate statistics can be found in the Schaum outline series book by Spiegel (1992). This book is well written and contains many good examples, but is poor on explaining the underlying concepts in statistics. The introductory text books by DeGroot and Schervish (2002), Rice (1995) and Wackerley et al. (1996) provide a clear and much deeper coverage of basic statistics. In addition, to these books, there are several recent books on statistics and data analysis written specifically for either meteorologists or oceanographers, for example, Wilks (1995) and von Storch and Zwiers (1999), and Emery and Thomson (1997). An interesting review of the history of probability and risk can be found in the popular book by David (1962)
In addition to books, there is also a large amount of useful
statistical help and information available online - some of the
most useful links are listed on the web page for this course:
By reading the help on these pages, you will be able to deepen
your knowledge of statistics and learn from statisticians how
best to do things.
Remember that it is most likely that you are not the first person
to have used a particular method and that there is a wide range
of statistical information and advice available in text books or
via the web. There is no excuse for not knowing about the method
you have used to analyse your data - good scientists always know
how to use their tools properly !