1. Questionnaire Results
8.2
8
7.8
7.6
7.4
7.2
Series1
7
6.8
6.6
6.4
Male Female
Please State Your Gender
I asked a question about whether they were male or female because I knew there were going to be
patterns and differences given in their answers. This would help later as we could orientate certain
articles and designs for the magazine. I had attempted to question an even number of males and
females, unfortunately I was instructed to hand out 15 questionnaires meaning one gender would
have 1 over. The graph is misleading as it seems to show far fewer females, but if you look closely
there was only 1 less female. This gave me a fair enough survey to compare the results.
This means that I have an near even amount of males and females so that my results are not
influenced toward a certain gender. It is a feasible question because I’ve tried to ask an even number
of both males and females. My results are valid because nobody lied about their gender, I watched
them as they completed it.
2. 12
10
8
6
Series1
4
2
0
16 years 17 years 18 years
Please State Your Age
I asked a question about age because I wanted to find out the spread of ages within college. Because
it is a tight age spread in the college there would not be much effort into gearing articles toward a
certain age, its more for filtering and analysis purposes. The majority of my participants were 17
years old, the most likely reason for this is that both Year 12 and Year 13 has 17 year old students,
being a common figure. I have a small number of either end of that, nobody I interviewed was 19,
though there are a small number of 19 year olds within the college.
This means that I have a clear majority and I may include less articles geared toward 18 year olds. I
may avoid articles to do with clubbing or drinking because only a small percentage of the college can
partake in those activities, maybe 6 months down the line when many of the year 13s become 18
years old. I am unsure about whether people were entirely honest about their age as it is difficult to
tell.
3. 12
10
8
6
Series1
4
2
0
Year 12 Year 13
What Year Are You In
I asked this question as I wanted to find whether there were more pupils in the first or 2 nd year. I
Here, quite evidently larger number pupils were in year 13. As somebody having to approach people
and asking them to fill in a questionnaire it is extremely difficult to see who is in what year. And
because so many people refused to do the questionnaire I had to take whoever would participate.
This means that the validity may be questionable, this I will discuss now.
The validity is in serious doubt for this question. After the first year at college, 40% of students drop
out, meaning there are fewer students in the 2 nd year. Furthermore this questionnaire took place
during year-13 lunchtime. Once my questions were completed; this was the only slot I could grasp. It
is common knowledge there are far more year 12s in college, to further invalidate my question, is
the following: The 40% who drop are not from the start of the college term, it is from the end, so this
does not even consider attrition throughout the first year in college. This attrition takes place mostly
just before the Christmas period as people who climbed the disciplinary ladder are held and
interviewed by the board at this time. So my first waves haven’t even dropped out, and there are
monumental numbers when it comes to year 12s. I would not even consider this question research,
and if I wasn’t asked to do a question on year groups I would never have done it.
4. White (British)
Pakistani
Indian
Chinese
I asked the question of ethnicities as we wanted to see whether people of a certain ethnicity
favoured certain stories. I found that there was no clear difference, I noticed a spread across the
board. However, if one was to test this a much larger sample would be in order, as this is by no
means representative of the college, or of ethnic minorities.
Being that the ethnic majority of the country, area and college are White Brits it was likely for most
of my participants to be of that ethnicity. From the people I asked to participate, only Asians agreed
to it, thus you see the ethnicities above. The college has an ethnic minority intake of 30%, and I was
close with the number of ethnic minority students I questioned.
This makes no difference to my product, other than the knowledge that there are no preferences for
people of ethnic minorities. The question itself was feasible because the need to cater to everyone’s
needs is essential. The results from this were valid, I had included a wide variety of ethnicities in the
questionnaire and no one had difficulty with it.
5. This was an important question to ask, had there been many pupils I could orientate more articles
toward coping with education and work, job opportunities, enterprise and further work related
articles.
The vast majority of students here said that they had no work outside of college. This was expected
as early on, the college encourage students not to partake in part time work simply because of the
demands of being at a sixth form. Also by this point in the year pupils who already had a job may
have quit due to the workload placed on them by the sixth form.
This now means I will not be placing articles such as coping with education and work, job
opportunities, enterprise and further work related articles. It was a feasible question, there are
many students who work, and if you find that in a certain establishment that many do, it is essential
to cater towards that. The test is valid, I set out to measure a certain aspect of student life and I
received a resounding significant answer which will help my cause.
6. We thought to include a question about sports, which could possible be included in the parent zone
too. Given it was football/rugby season we thought we should include an article about that. Our
cricket team is the most successful in terms of title wins in the entire west midlands/Warwickshire
area, with 7 title wins in 12 years. Last year was embarrassing as we lost first round, so an article
about the rebuilding process may be of interest.
Being that Football is the most popular sport in this country and that it’s currently Football/Rugby
season it came as no surprise that people were more interested in this article. People simply gave
reasons such as football is more popular, people can relate to it because of the current season.
However when it came to cricket people were more enthusiastic in their response, people were
saying that the sport is more exciting, and that the new season is up and coming so it will build
excitement. One participant even plays the sport and would like to read an article about it. Reasons
often show more than quantitative responses, which often add an extra dimension to result analysis.
This means that the mixed reviews may even mean the sports section is not included, that may be
partly down to the fact that other articles are in such high demand being festive season is just
around the corner. This also means feasibility is low, not only because of reviews, but access to
sports teachers, gaining interviews, fixtures and results may be difficult.
Results too are invalid; the time of year combined with lack of enthusiasm may mean this question is
not coming into fruition. It was a question that needed to asked as sports plays a big role in society
but it is not of great interest to some students.
7. 7
6
5
4
3
Series1
2
1
0
The Sixth Page The Purple Page Student Hub Student City
Which Title Is The Best For This Magazine
We asked a question about the proposed names for the magazine, we gave the audience 4 to choose
from, in the hope they would decide which would be best for our magazine. Giving the audience a
vote was necessary as they are going to be reading this magazine.
Closely contested battles between the first 3 proposed names, meaning those 3 are still up for
discussion. There were various reasons as to why people chose those 3, for the sixth page people
said that it links to colleges, and that it implies sixth forms. Also it has a sharp-chic style name, which
people can recognise. The Purple page took the lead, however the reasons for, were not too
convincing, people thought that it was humorous and that it had an alliteration, mostly idle reasons.
Student Hub was joint 2nd and for good reason, people liked the way it sounded, and the way it
rolled off the tongue. People made referenced to areas of learning such as learning hubs, also a hub
is inviting, and it gives the organisation purpose.
This means that I must look at further discussing the 3 more successful ideas with my group, because
we all put a different combination forward to our audience, we have to take an objective
measurement. The question was very feasible, if not essential. Although the group may have a clear
idea of what we want our title to be, we need to know what the audience want, after all they are the
ones who are going to be reading this magazine.
The results are not valid; Here I have noticed that statistics can mislead people into thinking one idea
should be carried forward and not the other. When asking about the proposed title, although people
chose The Purple Page I am not convinced that it should be carried forward. Simply because people
found it humorous and I will not have my magazine to be something of a joke to audiences. The Sixth
Page was popular in joint second and had more response because people related the title to a sixth
form college. Student Hub was the other in the tie and that too gained a lively response, people
related the hub to learning. I will support the latter two in further discussion with my team.
8. This was an important question to ask, had there been many pupils I could orientate more articles
toward coping with education and work, job opportunities, enterprise and further work related
articles.
The vast majority of students here said that they had no work outside of college. This was expected
as early on, the college encourage students not to partake in part time work simply because of the
demands of being at a sixth form. Also by this point in the year pupils who already had a job may
have quit due to the workload placed on them by the sixth form.
This now means I will not be placing articles such as coping with education and work, job
opportunities, enterprise and further work related articles. It was a feasible question, there are
many students who work, and if you find that in a certain establishment that many do, it is essential
to cater towards that. The test is valid, I set out to measure a certain aspect of student life and I
received a resounding significant answer which will help my cause.