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Yule developed his approach to correlation via regression with a conceptually new use of least squares.
After studying engineering and physics Yule worked under Pearson from 1893. Some of his early work appears as examples in Pearson's papers. Yule worked at University College London where he was promoted to Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics in 1896.
Yule's early work is on waves but as Pearson began to work on statistics Yule was more and more drawn into that field. In 1912 he accepted a Lectureship in Statistics at Cambridge, taking a drop in salary but never regretting the move.
Yule's own work entitled On the Theory of Correlation was first published in 1897. He developed his approach to correlation via regression over the next few years with a conceptually new use of least squares and by the 1920's his approach predominated in applications in the social sciences.
During World War I Yule worked as a statistician in the army, then at the Ministry of Food. He was awarded a C.B.E. for this work.
In his later years he applied statistics to literary style and published a book The statistical study of literary vocabulary in 1944.
Yule did not develop any completely new branches of statistical theory but he took the first steps in many areas which proved important in their further development by later statisticians.
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