Sense and Nonsense About Surveys

In a recent article i read called "Sense and Nonsense About Surveys" by Howard Schuman, he states that when conducting a research, surveys are the most effective way of gather information among a group of people by asking a series of questions. However, he also said that researchers need to take into consideration the population to which they are requesting information from. For example: if you would like to find out the unemployment rate in New York, then researchers must target unemployed people that resides in New York to gather evidence. Also, he states that it is important not to overlooked the minority neither the non-response when concluding the evidence, because they too are a part of the final decision and can later be compared among previous or future results. The refusal rate can account for up to 25 percent or more and can be larger if its a poorly executed survey. The Refusal rate have risen significantly over the past years and as a result it have become a big concern  among serious survey practitioners. Fortunately, in previous years research  have indicated that a reasonable amount of non-response did not have a major effect on results.

The article mentioned that "understanding surveys is critical to being an informed citizen, but popular media often report surveys without any guidance on how to interpret and evaluate the results. Some basic guidelines can promote more sophisticated readings of survey results and help teach when to trust the polls". This is true because, without guidance people often times misinterpret and conclude messages in the wrong way as well as answering a question depends on how the question asked. If the interviewer presents insufficient set of alternative, then most respondents will choose one rather than giving their own opinion . 

 Sampling a small part of a survey can also help to see if the sample is deem adequate to the task. Recognising that the value of sample does not only comes from its size, but also from the way it is obtained. Like for instance, George Gallup, 1936 presidential election, he predicted that by using less cases but much better method would make FDR win. 

In conclusion, the sense and nonsense about surveys is basically how an individual presents, gather,examining and interpret information collected, that is later use to make people aware of what is happening in society and how we are affected by them.