SURVEY INPUT 2- 1032 ADVANCED ENGLISH 2

Instructions on how to write your survey essay:

1 Choose a topic of interest.

Choose a topic of interest. The best topic will be a question that people will have a strong opinion about, but it does not have to be controversial. How to determine your topic is written in your supplementary pack, the section on “survey input”. Create a survey that asks the survey question.

2 Conduct your survey.

Start asking the people the question and note the answers they give along with other information like gender, age and occupation.

You will also ask people why they responded the way they did to give you more data to incorporate into your essay. You will also ask the responders (people who answer your question) to give an example explaining their answer.

3 Gather your findings. You may include a pie chart or bar graph to show your results. You will give a copy of  your question, findings and the pie chart to your teacher for his/her evaluation.

4 Write your introduction:

Begin the essay with an introduction. Include the survey question, why this topic was chosen and the hypothesis that was made prior to taking the survey. (In the below introduction, for example, the hypothesis is “Death penalty deters murders”.)

Furthermore, you may include the method of collecting the survey results. Did the writer send out a Facebook message? Did she email? Did the surveyor ask people walking by?

You will need to mention the two sides of the issue discussed: the for side and the against side. Don’t forget as in any for and against essay thesis statement, you will state that there are two sides without giving your opinion.

You might begin your essay based on a survey with an introduction like this:

Death Penalty Survey 

                      Two weeks ago my neighbor received an unfortunate phone call that his sister had been killed in a car crash. While traveling at a high rate of speed, a driver had hit my neighbor’s sister causing her to die. Therefore, of the many questions available for this survey, I chose "Are you in favor of the death penalty for a driver who exceeded the speed limit, hit a person and caused her to die?". With this question the two sides of the question may be explored. On one side, people claim that death penalty deters murders and accepts that innocent men might become casualties in the process. Some people support this opinion by firmly believing that the death penalty has a distinct positive influence on the deterrence of murders. However, other people believe the opposite. According to the opposing views, the death penalty does not deter murders and unjustly executes the innocent, making capital punishment unsuitable for a civilized nation. 12 people were interviewed in the survey. Their name, age, race, sex, marital status, birthplace, religion, were asked and of course the answer to the question. Then with the results of the survey this essay has been written. According to the research presented here, applying  death penalty can be appropriate and positive for deterring crime on one hand, but on the other hand  it can be  inappropriate.

5 Write the two body paragraphs

Write the body paragraphs, starting with the hypothesis regarding each particular group: the group supporting the for side and the group supporting the against side. Explain the results of the specific group. The writer can also provide direct quotes from responders to give the essay human interest. For example, did 60 percent of males surveyed prefer death penalty? Did 85 percent of people under 20 years of age prefer a minor punishment? These categorizations will be incorporated into the relevant body paragraph of your essay- either the body paragraph supporting the for side or the against side.

6Write the conclusion

 Restate the hypothesis and then state a conclusion about whether the hypothesis (In this case, “Capital punishment is a deterrent to crime”) is correct or not. You may include your own view or give a balanced consideration. You may also include what you have learned from the survey. You may summarize the findings of the survey and come up with your own conclusion.

7Edit the essay. Correct your written work before you hand it in.

8 Useful hints and phrases:
Present and past tenses, Reported Speech and an impersonal style should be used in your essays. You will use the passive voice. Use a variety of reporting verbs such as claim, state, report, agree, complain, suggest, etc.

When reporting the results of a survey, the figures gathered should be given in the form of percentages and proportions. Expressions such as “one in four” or “six out of ten” can be used, or exact percentages e.g. 25% of the people questioned, 68% of those who answered the questionnaire, etc. Less exact expressions such as: the majority of those questioned, a large proportion of, a significant number of, etc. can also be used.

Some expressions you may use in talking about your surveys:

To introduce:

The purpose, aim of this survey was as requested, …..

This survey was carried out ……

This survey was conducted by means of the questionnaire consisted of ____________ questions.

To mention what the participants said:

The participants were asked if they had…….

According to participant B, for example…..

Both participants stated that…..

All participants were….

The participants commented that…

To generalize:

In general, generally, on the whole, etc.

To refer to a fact: The fact is that …..In fact, in practice, etc.

To conclude, summarise:

In conclusion, All things considered, to sum up, all in all, it is not easy to reach any definite conclusions, If any conclusions may be drawn from the data,

It is clear that …..

The survey shows, indicates, demonstrates, etc.

Read more : http://www.ehow.com/how_8497326_write-survey-paper.html

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