quinn@well.UUCP (Quinn McHenry) (02/16/86)
What follows is an assignment for a class I have, and in fact it is
a survey which I am required to ask at least 70 people to answer.
Well, my instructor knows not of USENET (yet), and assumes that this
assignment will keep us busy for the weekend. However, I do know about
USENET, and therefore want to make my life a little easier. The class
is US History, and the questions may be questionable, but not to any
severe degree. Of coure not, it *is* a high school assignment.
Anyway, these are the questions: I would appreciate your support by
answering them truthfully, with a (y)es, (n)o or (u)ndecided. Also,
please give me your rough localtion (city or state) and age. The
responses may either be sent back through USENET, or directly to me
at ..!ihnp4!netisun!chariot!quinn
1) Do you support the current abortion laws?
2) Should people under 18 be given free birth control without their
parents knowing?
3) Should congress raise taxes to balance the budget?
4) Should the U.S. use the military to fight terrorism?
5) Should the U.S. get involved with the Philippine election?
6) Should NASA send another teacher into space?
7) Should the U.S. sell military goods to communist China?
8) Should students be able to smoke in (high) school?
9) Should "pot" be a legal drug like alcohol?
10) Should the federal governmant control the number of foreign
students who attend American colleges?
Thank you (in advance) -- Quinn McHenry
..ihnp4!netisun!chariot!quinnthroopw@dg_rtp.UUCP (02/24/86)
> What follows is an assignment for a class I have, and in fact it is > a survey which I am required to ask at least 70 people to answer. I found this survey very interesting because of it's poor design. Perhaps saying "poor design" is a little over-blunt, but let me explain. In essentially *none* of the questions would my answer have anything to do with the apparent main topic of the question. A few examples: > 1) Do you support the current abortion laws? Saying "no" to this question doesn't allow the tabulator to assume that I *disagree* with current abortion law, just that I don't support it. Further, it wouldn't allow the tabulator to assume that I support any particular alternative. > 2) Should people under 18 be given free birth control without their > parents knowing? If I say "no", it may well only be because I don't think that anyone should get things for "free", and might have nothing whatsoever to do with my position on birth control or parental consent. And anyhow, what does "should" mean in this context? (I note that *all* the questions (other than the first) have this ill-defined "should" in them.) > 3) Should congress raise taxes to balance the budget? Which taxes are we talking about here? What are the alternatives? Far too fuzzy to even come up with an answer. > 4) Should the U.S. use the military to fight terrorism? Essentially the same objections as 3. > 5) Should the U.S. get involved with the Philippine election? You mean we aren't involved? > 6) Should NASA send another teacher into space? I didn't know that any teachers had made it into space. But asuming this means "Should NASA attempt to send another teacher into space", a yes or no answer still wouldn't allow the tallier to deduce anything at all about my position on federal funding for space in general, nor even my position on civilian safety factors in space. > 7) Should the U.S. sell military goods to communist China? What are "military goods"? What about food (when fed to soldiers)? What about explosives (when used for mining)? > 8) Should students be able to smoke in (high) school? I have first-hand evidence that in the late sixties and early seventies, students were smoking in high school. So I'm fairly sure they are currently able to do it. My answer must be "yes", since the only way I know of to make it impossible to smoke in high-school is to strip-search all students on entry, or to remove the oxygen from the restrooms. :-) > 9) Should "pot" be a legal drug like alcohol? Both the positions that "alcohol should be banned" and "neither pot nor alcohol should even be taxed" lead to the answer "no". Phrasing the question so that these two positions are grouped together is ludicrous. > 10) Should the federal governmant control the number of foreign > students who attend American colleges? What kind of "American colleges"? Control how? Now, nearly as I can tell, this series of questions is no more poorly designed than your average "Gallup poll". And yet, the way these questions are phrased, the answers are almost *forced* to be ambiguous, and nearly sense-free. Is it any wonder that I don't take interpretations of poll results seriously? > Thank you (in advance) -- Quinn McHenry > ..ihnp4!netisun!chariot!quinn Sorry I couldn't in good concience answer your questions. Better luck next time. -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw