Data Gathering Assignment.: A Top-Quality Report For Your Inspiration

In attempting to gather data, my task was to ask at least ten people the question “do you prefer elevators or stairs in a five-storey building, and why is that?” I found that the actual data gathering was much harder than I had anticipated – I tried to get the attention of around thirty people, with most of them ignoring me! I was honestly beginning to worry that I would not get enough people for the survey, but I luckily managed to get my tenth respondent just before we finished for the day.
Of all the ten respondents to our question, most of the answers were what you might expect – most people (perhaps six in total), of all ages and backgrounds, preferred the elevator to the stairs, on the grounds that it wasted less time. Two women, one white American and one Asian American, specifically stated that they preferred elevators because, as they were required to wear heels to work, they found going up and down stairs constantly to be too hard on their knees. If they only needed to walk up or down one storey, then they were happy to take the lift, but for a specifically five-storey building in our question, they stated a preference for the lift.
Only two people answered the question by saying that they would prefer the stairs to the elevator. One of these people was a student, who identified as being white American, but would not answer the rest of the identifying questions. He preferred the stairs because “the elevator could sometimes get too crowded, and [he] found that awkward” to use his own words. The other man, who identified himself as being a man of 29 years, white British living and working full-time in Scotland (on a post-grad, so perhaps he was here for a conference?), interestingly stated that he preferred stairs because, to him, they were faster. He also mentioned that he thought taking the stairs was good exercise, and that using them appealed to him because then he used less electricity from day to day.
I found this task very difficult, to be entirely honest. Most people ignored our group, and many of them in fact glared at us before going on their way. It was a relief to speak to even those few people who stopped to share pleasantries and make excuses for why they couldn’t stop (five people), because at least they were polite! Perhaps it is because there is an overabundance of people trying – sometimes in quite an obnoxious manner – to get our attention on the street, when we are just trying to get through our day, and are perhaps in a hurry or late, that we are so impolite to these people. I hope that this experience will change my own behaviour towards this type of person for the better.