Confidence Intervals and Polls

Confidence Intervals and Polls

Discussion Best Practices

The Discussion is a great place

to learn in an interactive environment, so be sure to participate actively in the weekly Discussion. By doing so, the entire class benefits from the Discussion and learning is significantly enhanced. You will need to respond substantially to at least two of your classmate’s posts. Please try to make your initial posts no later than Sunday night to give your classmates an opportunity to respond. You should also post throughout the week so that you can respond to any responses your classmates have made to your posts as well as participate in the Discussion.

To receive full credit for your posts, be sure that your posts are at least 350 words long and provide solid details or examples that move the Discussion forward. It is highly recommended that you draft your responses in a Word document so that you may spell-check your post. Be sure your post is grammatically correct, has been spell checked, and fully answers the question. You can then copy and paste your response into the Discussion. This will also allow you to save your responses should you get timed out or experience other technical difficulties.

If you use outside sources for this Assignment, they need to be cited in proper APA format. You can find numerous APA resources in the KU Writing Center Writing Reference Library on the Research, Citation, and Plagiarism page.

Your Assignment should include a highly developed purpose and viewpoint; it should also be written in Standard American English and demonstrate exceptional content, organization, style, and grammar and mechanics. There should be no evidence of plagiarism. If you are unsure what constitutes plagiarism, please review the KU plagiarism policy.

When the results of a survey or poll are published, the sample size and the margin of error are both given. For example: 1000 voters were surveyed and 39±2% of the voters agree with the president. In this example N=1000 and the margin of error (MoE) is 2%.

This website lists several public opinion polls. Search the site and find a poll where the sample size and margin of error are given. Try to find a poll dealing with a topic in your profession or one in which you are really interested.

http://www.pollingreport.com

Determine the following information for the selected poll results and include in your initial post:

1. URL for the website
2. Using your own words, state the topic of the poll in a full sentence.
3. State the sample size and margin of error.
4. Interpret the results of your poll using your own words and full sentences. Note: Depending on the question asked, your poll may have more than one poll result – you only need to discuss one result.
5. Looking at the results with respect to the margin of error, do you think there is a significant difference in the responses to the different questions being asked?
6. What role could sampling have played in determining these results?

In your response posts, question your classmates about some of the potential biases that could interfere with accurate estimates for the population parameter in question.