Canada's Smartest Cities and Surveys

The cover article in the September 8, 2008 issue of Maclean's is about Canada's Smartest Cities. How would you define a smart city? You would need to establish certain criteria, conduct a survey, collect data and then analyze and interpret the data. For this study over 4,700 cities were surveyed and you can find the complete study here. You might be surprised to discover that Montreal and Longueuil did not fare very well on this study, and another city in Quebec, Saguenay, rated at the very bottom.
Your assignment is to write a 100-word synthesis of the main article (p. 46-50) and a slightly longer analysis (200 words) in which you include comments that refer to the related articles (p. 52-56). Do you think the poor ratings of cities in Quebec is justified? Are there questions that were not asked that might have changed the results or do you think the survey results paint an accurate picture of the level of learning opportunities in these cities?
Remember to include a proper reference for your article.

Surveys are commonly used to elicit information from the public to discover trends and collect data. The specific questions that are asked (or not asked) as well as the wording of the questions can affect the outcome. The interpretation of the data can also vary from one person to another. Next week you will design a survey to be posted on the Collaborative Blog using the online tool Survey Monkey. Come prepared with a good idea for your survey and a variety of questions. You will work with a partner. Here is a sample survey you can look at.

Longueuil students should also do the exercises on the Passive Voice on p. 16 of your course manual.