Chapter specific application exercises will help you think about research design in practice or have you explore a relevant resource.

Exercise 1: Systematic Sampling

Using Exhibit 8.1 as your population, change the starting point and sampling interval, and create a systematic sample. How does the resulting sample reflect the original population?

Exercise 2: How Does Sampling for One Variable Affect Another Variable?

Using Exhibit 8.1 as your population and a random numbers generator such as that found at http://randomizer.org, draw a stratified random sample that reflects the proportion of dietary preferences in the population. Calculate the proportion of each class year in your sample and decide whether the sample reflects the population with respect to class year.

Exercise 3: Multistage Cluster Sampling

You decide to survey communication majors across the country with respect to their views on required courses in communication research. Design a multistage sampling procedure that identifies the stages you will sample and how you will sample at each stage.

Exercise 4: Pew Research Center Internet Knowledge Survey

The 2014 Pew Research Center Internet, Science & Tech Project survey, “What Internet Users Know About Technology and the Web,” asked a sample of Internet users such questions as what the letters URL stand for, the name of the first university on Facebook, and the name of the first popular graphical web browser. You can take the survey and see the results and a discussion of the sampling procedures at www.pewinternet.org/2014/11/25/web-iq.

For each question:

• How might you expect the results from your own web-based convenience sample of college students to differ from the results reported here, and why?
• How might you expect the results from a traditional landline telephone survey of Internet users to differ from the results reported here, and why?

How might you expect the survey results to vary as the age of the sample varies, for example sampling those over the age of 65 or under 18? Why?