Contemporary Editing

Exercises

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Editing 2.0 Exercises: Survey says …

Module 11.1

Questions

1. What are the qualities of a good, reliable poll or survey? What are the primary obstacles to insuring that a poll or survey has these qualities?
2. 2. Let’s say you wish to conduct a satisfaction survey of students regarding your campus dining service. How many in your sample do you need? When should you conduct the poll to get the best representation of student opinions? Where should you conduct the poll?

Activities

1. Get a copy of the most recent campus newspaper, or visit your college news website. Choose a story for which a poll or survey would provide a useful, additional layer of information. Brainstorm a few questions that could be asked as part of this poll or survey.
2. 2. Experiment with creating and conducting simple polls using a free online survey tool, such as surveymonkey.com. Send your poll questions to a group of friends, then try out the online tool’s many options for displaying or presenting the poll’s results. (Recognize that using friends prevents or precludes poll validity; this exercise is merely to give you practice with how an online tool works and with the variety of ways to present its findings.)

Quiz

Editor’s Bookshelf—Additional Reading Suggestions

No safety in numbers: Checking them twice

Quinn, Sara Dickerson. Copy editing pro Merrill Perlman spots story problems. Poynter.org, March 3, 2009. After a few general comments, Perlman gives examples of problems with numbers.

Baker, Bob. Math for journalists: Shaky on percentages? Ratios? Rates? Averages? Take Jack Robinson’s refresher course. This article on Bob Baker’s Newsthinking site also gives suggestions for further math study.