Blog 10

Our class discussion on the writing option major survey brought out some intriguing points. One thing that I got from it is that putting together a survey is very difficult. There are so many different aspects to consider like when to give it out, as freshmen or juniors. Another thing is the language which Gee speaks about. It seems that those who came up with the surveys assume that those taking the survey understand the language that is on the survey and that is not always true. Students might take the survey thinking they understand it but actually have no idea what rhetoric and discourse mean. The English Department uses a language in this survey that fits their discourse, and although students in the English department are expected to learn the language, they might not have complete understanding of it, or have not even been taught it yet. As a class we came to the conclusion that data from surveys in general may not always be accurate because of all the factors that have to go into it.

Because the questions are so straight forward, there isn't enough information to understand what is going on in the students’ mind. With surveys you can collect generalized non-specific information. Although surveys are intended to collect specific data, most of the time that isn't the outcome. You can also collect information that deals with numbers of people depending on the people that fill out the survey. For example, you can collect the number of people who buy fast food rather than cook food from home. Surveys collect numbers rather than detail. Surveys can also collect demographics. 

Challenges include the fact that people may not be truthful on surveys. Because the options are few, students will feel forced to pick an answer which is on a survey but might not actually be their true answer. It is very difficult to put a survey together because you can only see your own views and you own opinions. Those putting together a survey are limited to their own minds; they cannot enter into the minds of all the other people whom they are surveying, which contain various kinds of details that will be helpful for the surveys. Therefore if they cannot get on others’ minds, they cannot know the right questions to ask or the right ways to ask questions. Language is also another great challenge that people making surveys have to be careful of. It can be difficult to simplify language and still get the answers that you desire. Some surveys might still need to use the language of that discourse even though it means that they might get responses that are inaccurate.