Pick a public policy issue that is of interest to you.

You will prepare and conduct a poll on this issue. You should review pollster sites and take a look at their polls on your issue.

Some sites include

Gallup Organization

Rasmussen Reports

Pew Research Center

National Opinion Research Center

Zogby International

Next, you will create your own poll.

Finally, you will conduct the poll -- polling at least 10 people -- and analyze the results.

Submission Requirements

Your assignment package should include the following:

1. Specify the policy issue you selected.

2. List the published polls you reviewed. Provide the link to each.

3. Describe your poll.

Describe how you will conduct your poll (methodology).

List the questions you will use (content).

Identify potential sampling biases that could result from your poll and how you will try to avoid/prevent them (sampling error).

4. Conduct the poll, involving at least 10 people. For the purposes of this exercise, we will acknowledge that a random sampling is not realistic.

Therefore, you may poll your classmates, family members, friends, etc.

5. Collect the data from your poll and analyze the results. As part of your assignment package, address the following:

Summarize your results.

Compare your results with results from the polls you found in the polling websites described above. How do these results differ? How are they the same? Can you explain the differences and similarities?

Were the results of your poll what you expected? Why or why not?

6. Assess the polling process. As part of your assignment package, provide an analysis of the following points in approximately 225-250 words:

What problems did you encounter?

How challenging was it to craft neutral, unbiased questions?

Did you ask the right questions? How might you have re-worded your questions to get better results?

Which are better for polling: Open-ended questions, or close-ended questions? Explain your answer.

What are your overall thoughts about polling? Do we rely too much on polling? How might we otherwise gain information about what people prefer?