Björn Vrooman Oct 5, 2014:

Unfortunately,... ...I can't see the picture that is supposed to be in the book (was probably removed from the book section I saw online because of copyright issues). Maybe it'll be easier if you compare that picture with the graphics found under my link and see what comes closest.

I'd probably say analyse/analysis because that's broad enough (even a breakdown is an analysis in itself), "dissecting" - as I tried to point to below - may also be a nice option as it seems broad enough to me in its application.

Don't know what Andrew and Ramey think but I believe the problem you had with analysis had more to do with the preposition.

On a side note, the usual statistics term for "Merkmale" should be "attributes" here, not characteristics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_and_attribute_(researc...

Björn Vrooman Oct 5, 2014:

OK, here it is... Quotes:
http://www.statsoft.com/Textbook/Basic-Statistics#Breakdown: Descriptive statistics by groups

I know the original text - it refers to interest in politics. The surveys typically use two or four categories. The four categories are usually regrouped, so we may just call them YES and NO.

"Breakdowns are typically used as an exploratory data analysis technique; the typical question that this technique can help answer is very simple: Are the groups created by the independent variables different regarding the dependent variable? [...]"

Sure that's what this is about?

Example of the type of correlations the author refers to:
Interest in politics increases with age
Interest in politics seems to play a smaller role in the lives of women

However, the author also explains the results of related studies more than once throughout the paragraphs.

What you're probably looking for are cross-tabulations in frequency tables:
"Another related type of analysis that cannot be directly performed with breakdowns is comparisons of frequencies of cases (n's) between groups. [...]"

Simplest form is a 2x2 table: YES/NO - MALE/FEMALE

Lets you see the percentages.

Björn Vrooman Oct 5, 2014:

@mill2 I do like Andrew's answer here. "break down" may actually be debatable. I'll post something this evening to explain why. Thanks.

Horst Huber (X) Oct 3, 2014:

Clearly "breaking down" is the standard rendition, though the metaphor is the opposite of the one in the German word, of finding the right key(s) to understanding.

Ramey Rieger (X) Oct 2, 2014:

@Brigitte Thanks for breaking it down for me!

Donald Jacobson Oct 2, 2014:

I agree with breaking down It is common in both American and British English

BrigitteHilgner Oct 2, 2014:

@ Ramey Hello Ramey,
we already have:
http://www.proz.com/?sp=gloss/term&id=246708
and
http://www.proz.com/?sp=gloss/term&id=868521
People consulting the kudoz glossary won't feel left in the lurch. :-)

Ramey Rieger (X) Oct 2, 2014:

@Andrew um, er, hem, haw.....

Lancashireman Oct 2, 2014:

Ramey mill2 has already posted it (see above). Do we add ideas or recycle them here?

Ramey Rieger (X) Oct 2, 2014:

@Brigitte Would you post it please?

mill2 (asker) Oct 2, 2014:

right, but I guess I wasn't sure if it's normally used in this way ("breaking down the data according to particular characteristics")

BrigitteHilgner Oct 2, 2014:

What's wrong with ... breaking down( breakdown) by ...? In my opinion, that's a common expression.