Sunday, August 28, 2011
Surveys
After just one week of being in AP statistics and AP Psychology, I have learned that everything you read is not always so accurate. All over the internet, you see surveys and huge signs that read "95 percent of the people in your area have switched from Sprint to Verizon." Our initial reaction is "Wow! Maybe I should look into switching to Verizon." However, don't fall into that trap. You don't know how the survey was worded or who the people who were given the survey were. Maybe the survey was intentionally given to two hundred people in the area who have recently made derogatory comments about Sprint on their facebook page. Also, sometimes the way in which questions are worded can be interpreted in different ways. As we know, people look at things differently and make their own ideas about something. This is why on a test we are so inclined to always ask the teacher what exactly he/she is expecting for each question. Also, on a survey that is multiple choice, there might not be a choice that is exactly what you feel but if it is close enough, you'll 'check' it anyways. So, that is not really indicating your true belief. With that said, why are we always told to include statistics in our essays. Yes, they do add excitement and depth to our topic, but are they reliable?
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I definitely agree with you Alexa! The statistics that we see on a daily basis are probably made up most of the time or were done in unfair surveys. After reading this, I also realize that it is a little bit strange that teachers ask us to include so many statistics in our essays. We often find random stuff on the internet from sources that are completely unreliable, but they seem interesting, so why not use them?! I think that many teachers do realize this, though and that is why a lot of the time they ask us to only search specific sites that are known to be reliable.
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