Please participate our academic questionnaire from University of Birmingham

I had to look up Alumnus?

I thought it was a tree.

 

I know a lot of students have to submit survey results as part of their course work.

But the usual way of doing it is via a site such as this where they have to pay a decent hourly rate to the folk doing the surveys for them.

I don't do surveys for free.

 

It did cross my mind...
No university education here, left school at 15

 

Indeed, but these are academic issues.

 

With respect, as far as student surveys go, that is not the "usual" way
Equally, students (by their very definition!) rarely pay anyone to partake in their surveys. An exception to this might be psychology students and the like, who would make a nominal cash payment and most likely just grab people from the nearest student bar

The site you link to is for "researchers", as in academic research, not student project/dissertation research.

Undergrads will often use sites such as Survey Monkey to pull together a questionnaire for their dissertation/project and the facility to "pay" those who respond to such a survey doesn't (as far as I know) exist.

Postgrads are more likely to use Bristol Online Surveys (a canny undergrad might also use them, but most often, go with the crowd and S.M. rather than ask their librarian what academic survey system is available to them ). However, yet again, payment to those participating is not an option.

I take your point. Other posters make valid points that a) English may not be the posters first language and b) posting on a forum doesn't require correct spelling/grammar.

I would argue, a) at Undergrad stage, but most definitely by Post Grad stage, the student would have sufficient grasp of English Grammar and spelling to succeed at that academic level - if *not* - they are assigned a tutor to oversee their projects/questionnaires and at that point, grammatical errors would be discussed and most computers have a spell checker for any the tutor may not spot. Regarding b) generally speaking, I'm in agreement. However, *anyone* who posts on a forum to garner support for an academic project, most especially at Post Grad level, should post in the style of an academic. Therefore, grammar and spelling are open to comment. If I visit the survey and it contains grammatical errors and spelling mistakes I would be less than impressed most especially at Post Grad level. However, as we all know, there are many leaders of people out there who are atrocious at spelling, grammar and punctuation. They have merely reached a point where they dictate and others type
In this particular instance, the use of the plural "we" suggests it is a group project and, as such, all within the group have a responsibility to ensure that any public writings should be error free. Interestingly, the poster used the word "ensure" when the correct term (in that context) would be "assure" Just saying!
Hey ho! We all live and learn on a daily basis.

I do appreciate just how stressful these projects can be so I do, wholeheartedly, wish the "team" success with their project

 

The sad thing is that we've generations who were told as school children, that spelling and grammar were not important. To me and I'm sure many of my generation, that's "academia speak," for teachers who could no longer be arsed to highlight such mistakes in submitted written work.
Being told to write it all out again with corrections made, in our own time soon taught people of my age, to use a dictionary.
In my business there were many young applicants incapable of reading a simple job application and completing it as instructed, in a legible and coherent manner. Some didn't grasp the fact that in a highly competitive world, it's first impressions that count, not the glossy CV, "your mum ran up on the computer and printed off for you."
"Never mind that, fill this in with a pen," when given an application form, sometimes generated looks of panic.

Like many, I make mistakes when posting on this board, but if later I notice them, I actually go back to correct them. How you speak and compose written work has always said a lot about a person, often more than they might imagine.

 

I would hazard a guess that your statement would very much depend on the type of school a child attended and also what is meant, and understood, by the term "generations".
Certainly the school I attended would correct poor grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, and with due respect, but wasn't your line of "business" within a supermarket environment? In which case, the question begs to be asked: what level of education did they (predominantly) employ; what level of education were they (predominantly) advertising for? In my experience, and to the best of my knowledge, the supermarket environment were never looking at post graduates for the shop floor/warehouse/check-outs.

With respect to our teaching profession, I would also like to address this comment made:

How many of your "generation" have you canvassed in order to quantify that statement so you could claim that you are so "sure"? I find this comment to be nothing less than insulting and, at best, condescending to the teaching profession! "Could no longer be arsed"? Really?

 

Oh, the irony!

 

Yet, the topic isn't about "Factory Fodder" (your term, not mine) it is about a Post Graduate survey and expectations of post grad literacy levels. Not "Factory Fodder" literacy levels.

 

Hi ARMANDII, today I am trying to post the link again. I think I have met the minimum requirements, but I still could not post the link. Could you please help me ?
The website informs me:
Minimum Requirements
The number of posts you have created must exceed: 2 (Yours: 5)
The number of Likes you've received must exceed: 1 (Yours: 15)
The Like:Post Ratio must exceed: 0% (Yours: 300%)
The number of days you have been registered must exceed: 1 (Yours: 1)

 

A "like" for me too