Using Microsoft Excel for Social Research

Full of practical advice and real-world examples, this step-by-step guide offers you an accessible introduction to doing quantitative social research using Microsoft Excel.

This is an invaluable resource for people learning statistics. Brookfield provides a clear, accessible and engaging introduction to using Excel to explore, analyze and report quantitative data. , It makes perfect sense to train our students in Microsoft Excel: not only does the programme have increased functionality for social research, but it is also a staple in many graduate workplaces. This text is distinct from other Excel help guides in that it is explicitly designed around the social research process and with undergraduate students in mind. Using real-life datasets and tools such as ‘reminder boxes’, it is a highly comprehensive, engaging and accessible resource for introductory quantitative research methods modules. 

Charlotte Brookfield is a senior lecturer of social sciences at Cardiff University. Charlotte is based in the Cardiff Q-Step Centre of Excellence in Quantitative Methods Teaching and Learning. The Centre is one of eighteen across the UK which aim to enhance the quantitative research methods training experience for social science students. The pedagogic activities of the Centre have influenced Charlotte’s research interests and in particular, she is interested in exploring the extent to which British sociology engages with quantitative approaches and the possible factors that may contribute toward sociology students’ resistance to study and use quantitative techniques. Charlotte teaches on a range of research methods and substantive modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Specifically, she convenes the Real World Research Placement module, where students are afforded the opportunity to put into practice the quantitative skills they have acquired in lectures in a local work organisation. Organisations involved in this module include the Welsh Government, the Welsh Blood Service and the Welsh Wheelchair Basketball Association. It was through leading this module that Charlotte came to realise the necessity for social science students and graduates to have a greater familiarity with Microsoft Excel. In her spare time, Charlotte enjoys baking and crafting.