Survey Critique

Instructions
All writing assignments will be graded on quality of writing as well as content. All papers should be written for an audience of competent people who have not had a statistics class (think of a newspaper article or summary report to be read by your supervisor). All papers should be easy to read, i.e. paragraph form, typed (word processed) in a standard 12-point font with reasonable margins and double spaced. Use full sentences, proper grammar and spelling, and make sure that your paper is coherent and accurate.
Writing Assignment 1 Topic
Find a newspaper, news magazine article, or online written report from a television news outlet reporting on a survey (not a census or an experiment) and critique it. Any source from the web should be from a reputable and well-known newspaper, news magazine, or news media organization and not a wiki or blog.
You may, instead, use a survey reported on in a peer reviewed academic journal, which has relevance to your chosen field of study. However, if you use this option, you must also include a paragraph in the comments section of your submission explaining why the topic of the article is relevant to your future work.
Use the questions in section 4.9 of your online textbook (last page of chapter 4) as a guide for your critique. The questions from the textbook are provided below. Identify those aspects that were done correctly and those that were done incorrectly. Attach a link to the article or a copy of the article to your paper. The written portion of your paper should be approximately 1–2 pages in length.
Please refer to the grading rubric for specific expectations, and review Writing Assignment 1 Sample for an excellent example. (Note: This sample applies to all of the writing assignments.)
Questions to Ask before You Believe a Poll
Opinion polls and other sample surveys can produce accurate and useful information if the pollster uses good statistical techniques and also works hard at preparing a sampling frame, wording questions, and reducing non-response. Many surveys, however, especially those designed to influence public opinion rather than just record it, do not produce accurate or useful information. Here are some questions to ask before you pay much attention to poll results:
• Who carried out the survey? Even a political party should hire a professional sample survey firm whose reputation demands that it follow good survey practices.
• What was the population? That is, whose opinions were being sought?
• How was the sample selected? Look for mention of random sampling.
• How large was the sample? Even better, find out both the sample size and the margin of error within which the results of 95% of all samples drawn as this one was would fall.
• What was the response rate? That is, what percentage of the original subjects actually provided information?
• How were the subjects contacted? By telephone? Mail? Face-to-face interview?
• When was the survey conducted? Was it right after some event that might have influenced opinion?
• What were the exact questions asked?
Academic survey centers and government statistical offices answer these questions when they announce the results of a sample survey. National opinion polls usually don’t announce their response rate (which is often low) but do give us the other information. Editors and newscasters have the bad habit of cutting out these dull facts and reporting only the sample results. Many sample surveys by interest groups and local newspapers and TV stations don’t answer these questions because their polling methods are, in fact, unreliable. If a politician, an advertiser, or your local TV station announces the results of a poll without complete information, be skeptical.