Survey Assignment

In this part of the class you will create a short survey, administer it, analyze the data, and write up the results. This project is due December 5, that's the Friday after Thanksgiving break. We will go over the statistics you can use with surveys before that date.

The survey project proposal is due 10/17; what you need to include is listed in your syllabus. The literature review is due 11/2. The questionnaire draft is due 11/7. We will discuss and edit in class. The final project is due 12/3. There's some overlap with the content analysis project so plan ahead.

Here are some survey ideas. As with the content analysis project, I am putting some limits on the projects to help you pick topics that I know have some literature available. And topics that I want to read about

  • People's perceptions of gamers (stereotypes)
  • Why people play/don't play (uses & grats stuff)
  • Casual vs hardcore gamers
  • People's impressions of the videogame industry (tie to some news event like the GTA / Hot Coffee incident this summer or California trying to ban violent videogame sales in the state - good for people maybe with a journalism minor?)
  • What kinds of people will play what kinds of games on cell phones
  • Genre preferences
  • How do people learn how to play games (not learn what games to play - but how do they actually learn how to play a new game that they get - would lead nicely to an experiment)
  • How do people choose the character they want to play as - and how do we explain the different choices (another one that would lead nicely into an experiment)
  • Do college students play computer games like everybody else (can go a couple of directions with this)
Instructions
  • You need to write a lit review for the final project so do some reading up front. Read about video game projects but also projects on your topic involving other media such as television or the movies. What other questions have been used? What hypotheses tested already? It should be approximately 6 to 8 pages long. It's due 11/2
  • Come up with 3-4 good hypotheses to use in your survey. You might find ones in the articles you read for the lit review. Be sure the hypotheses you use have dependent and independent variables and express some relationship between the variables.
  • Develop survey questions that would give you the answers you need to test your hypotheses.
  • This semester each group will conduct separate surveys. You will need to collect data. You must have more than 100 surveys.
  • Each group will then do their own data analysis to test their hypotheses. This includes frequencies, measures of central tendency, crosstabs, correlations, measures of significance, and anything else we cover between then and now.
  • Write up your results as a group - the lit review, your hypotheses, your survey questions, your description and analysis of the data, and then the discussion and conclusion. Be sure to have a methods section - Include a description of the subjects and how you recruited them. Include a conclusion that summarizes what you found, if your results contradict anything you found in your lit review. Put in a section about what you could do next if you were doing another survey. You need a bibliography, tables and charts that you specifically refer to in the text (not just spss ones you printed off because ya think there's something in there Kim might be looking for)

Here are the guidelines for how i want the paper formatted and what I"m looking for.

  • Turned in on time - no late papers will be accepted. Late = 0 points. No redo's. No excuses. No "the printer ate my homework" or "my disk crashed" or "I got a virus". Save it in a couple of places. Save it often. Print out drafts in case you have to retype it if the disk is corrupt. Don't wait till class starts to print - that's too late.
  • The paper should show evidence that you have synthesized information from a variety of sources. (one way to show this - you have multiple sources on each topic - not one single source for a section of the paper) Go for the best quality source you can - have at leat 10 of them. Use mostly academic journal articles. You can supplement with news stories from good sources; in fact, news stories are an interesting way to introduce your topic and show why your project is important.
  • Writing shows results of some analysis - don't just quote sources, don't just make list of facts - show evidence of some thoughtfulness
  • Correct bibliography style - and use in-text citations
  • Correct length (not too short, longer is ok)
  • No grammar or typing mistakes - proofread, spell check, print out and edit - don't turn in first drafts as final products
  • Meet the minimum number of (high quality) bibliography items - more is always better
  • The paper should be double spaced (not triple), in 12 point or smaller font, Times or Times Roman. One inch margins all around (not 1.5 inches that for some reason Word thinks is standard - learn how to change margins.) Staple the paper in the upper left corner - no paperclips, no dog eared corners - look professional. No folders or plastic covers - just a title page with project name and group members. Be sure to include page numbers. These criteria are important - they're not magic - but you have to learn to follow directions because clients may have very specific production requirements that you will have to follow. So get used to it. These things will be checked first - if they're not met - you'll get the paper back to be redone.

This page last updated 7 September 2005 by Kim Gregson


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