DS350 - Quantitative Methods

Homework #2 - Writing a Survey

The purpose of this assignment is to give you experience in writing a good survey instrument. It is due at the beginning of class on Friday, January 29. Late homework will not be accepted. The assignment is worth 30 points toward your homework/quiz grade.

You are to work on this assignment in groups of no more than three students, who can be from any of my sections of DS350. (One-person groups are acceptable. I would encourage a group effort, because you learn from your interaction with others. However, I realize that group assignments are not convenient for many in the class, so will not require such. Groups of more than three quickly become unwieldy, however. Split any group that large into smaller groups.) I would encourage, but not require, you to work with your Project #1 group. On this assignment (and this assignment only!), I will need only one homework submission for each group. Under normal circumstances, all members of the group will receive the same grade for the assignment. You are on your honor to contribute meaningfully to your group’s efforts.

You are to design a written survey to be administered to some population on campus (students, commuters, staff, faculty, etc.) or in the local community. The aim of the survey should be to obtain information about some issue of interest or concern to some campus or local constituency.

Remember that, as a general rule in designing surveys, you should NOT begin by writing survey questions. Instead, you should decide upon survey objectives. What sorts of information would you like to have at the conclusion of the survey process? Once you've decided upon those objectives, THEN write survey questions that will give you the information you need to achieve those objectives.

I would suggest that you should pretest your survey by having a few people complete it. (These people can be a convenience sample, rather than a random sample.) Make changes in your survey based upon their feedback (problems they have, items they misunderstand, etc.).

FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS IN SUBMITTING YOUR SURVEYS. You should submit:

(1) A cover page, giving the names of the people in the group. Your names should not appear anywhere else in what you submit.

(2) FIVE copies of your survey instrument.