Chapter 9.1 InQuizitive: How to Survey an Audience

Pew Research Center surveys often ask, "What is your present religion, if any?" The surveys go on to list a range of answer options for the question (see pages 503-504). What is a problem with the way the surveys pose this question?

The answer option leave out certain religions

Where does the confidence to make sudden changes in the middle of your presentation come from?

good advance preparation

Which type of close-ended question is most popular?

multiple- choice questions

Label each close-ended question with its type.

"On a scale of 1 to 5, how much did you enjoy this morning's presentation?" - rating "If you could attend only one of the following events, which would you choose?" - multiple-choice "Order the books by how much you liked them, starting with your favorite." - rank ordering "If you are comfortable providing your age, race, and marital status, please do so." - demographic

Fill in the blanks to complete the following passage about race and ethnicity The US Census now considers ___________________ to be ______________, not _______________. One way to avoid getting tripped up by changes in race and ethnicity designations is to _________________ the categories into a single question.

- Hispanic or Latino - an ethnicity - a race - combine

Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about administering audience surveys. With a _______________ survey, you will want to coordinate with _____________ . Make sure you leave yourself enough time to collect the responses and _____________ the results.

- prepresentation - the group you will be addressing - analyze

Fill in the blanks to complete the passage about a certain type of survey. _______________ are surveys filled with questions meant to _____________. They are often used in ______________. Ethical survey researchers will _______________ this type of survey

- push polls - provoke particular responses - political campaigns - avoid

What makes an information-gathering conversation an interview?

It is one-on-one

(T/F) The best way to be inclusive when collecting demographic data is to ask open-ended questions instead of close-ended ones with limited answer options.

False

(T/F) When you have a presentation planned out and rehearsed, it is a bad idea to depart from your plan midpresentation.

False

Identify the quality of a good survey displayed in each example.

Pavel proofreads his survey, to make sure there are no typographical errors. - professional looking Jethro asks just five yes-or-no questions, plus a question about the respondent's age. - brief and simple Naima makes sure all her questions relate to the subject she wants to learn more about. - relevant Milo avoids asking questions that could be used to identify individual respondents. - confidential Ki-jung revises her questions, after a friend tells her that two of them are confusing. - pretested