Robert Niles, a journalist and producer for the LA Times, created this site to help other writers learn the basics of statistics. He explains many key concepts that are essential to report accurate, meaningful numbers and facts. After starting with the fundamentals of mean, median, and percent, Niles goes on to describe more advanced topics like normal distribution, margin of error, and data analysis. For each section, an example or two are provided to demonstrate proper usage of the techniques. A discussion of some frequently asked questions is also given, which covers survey sample sizes and choosing the right statistical test for different kinds of data.