Who does survey research and how do they do it? These questions can be answered through careful inspection of ongoing surveys and the organizations that administer them at http://www.ciser.cornell.edu/info/polls.shtml. Spend some time reading about some of the different survey research organizations, and write a brief summary of the types of research they conduct, the projects in which they are involved, and the resources they offer on their Web sites. What are the distinctive features of different survey research organizations?

Go to the Research Triangle Institute site at http://www.rti.org. Click on "Tools and Methods," then "Surveys," and then "Survey Design and Development." Read about their methods for computerassisted interviewing (under "Survey Methods") and their cognitive laboratory methods for refining questions (under "Usability Testing"). What does this add to my treatment of these topics in this chapter?

Go to The Question Bank at http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk/docs/home.htm. Go to the "Surveys" link and then click on one of the listed surveys or survey sections that interests you. Review 10 questions used in the survey, and critique them in terms of the principles for question writing that you have learned. Do you find any question features that might be attributed to the use of British English?