Group Project: Data cleaning description

Please submit a written section on your data using the following prompts. This section should be written in paragraph form.

In order to keep as many observations as possible, missing values for [description of variable for which missing data was altered. You may have to repeat this if you have more than one.] were replaced with [how did you recover these missing values?]. We expect this assumption to [how, if at all, do you expect this to alter results as compared with a full, complete dataset with no imputed values?]
Following data cleaning, there were [enter the number][unit of analysis]s in this dataset. {if a survey, provide effective response rate)
In this analysis, we are primarily interested in describing [your key dependent (y/output) variable]. We measure [key variable] using [describe the data source and level of measurement and, if appropriate, the question and question format for the variable].

The variable [your key dependent (y/output) variable.] has a [list appropriate measure of central tendency] of [list value of measure of central tendency] and [repeat for other measures of central tendency, as appropriate].[Note: You may have to repeat this last part if you have more than one way of measuring your key variable.

Example writeup:

In order to keep as many observations as possible, missing values for the variable measuring community interest in participating in community councils were replaced with values indicating lack of interest. In other words, for those who did not indicate whether or not they were interested in participating, we assumed that they were not interested. We expect this assumption to provide more conservative estimates of expected participation rates in community councils.

In this analysis, we are primarily interested in describing citizen interest in participating in community councils. We measure interest in participation using a question on an e-mail survey that asked, “are you interested in participating in community councils?” Respondents were then able to check one of two boxes: “I am interested in participating” or “I am not interested in participating.” The variable for interest in participating has a modal value of “not interested in participating.” Approximately 41 percent of  respondents indicated that they would be interested in participating in community councils.

Following data cleaning, there were responses from 426 citizens in this dataset. Given that the survey was originally sent to 1000 potential respondents, this represents a 42.6 percent effective response rate.