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How to Write a Short Story Research Paper

What Exactly Is A Story?

Our capacity for feeling and our ability to remember are both enhanced by the telling of stories, which are essentially built into our brains. But what is a story exactly? The more people you ask for definitions, the more you will obtain. The basic format of the majority of Hollywood dramas consists of one main character living her life until she meets a predicament. There will be ups and downs, culminating in a large event such as a fight or a party. The action begins when she seeks to resolve the issue. Things are ultimately resolved in some fashion. We observe how our protagonist’s life has changed as a result of the novel’s events.

Whether you are writing a research paper for a high school or college-level class, the process of researching a short story is generally the same, although a college instructor will likely want additional information. Before investigating the short story, thoroughly read it and make any necessary notes. Creating your research paper allows you to have a deeper understanding of the short story and share your discoveries with the reader.

Read any handouts or notes you’ve prepared on the particular requirements for the next research paper. Pay particular attention to the required word/page count and the type of works mentioned page in terms of both structure and quantity of sources. Additionally, you should keep track of whether your instructor requires a specified number of primary sources in addition to secondary sources. Determine which, if any, of your sources may be located online.

• Find a quiet place to read and reread the required short story . Take notes carefully as you read.
• Seek comments about the story you want to create. You should find a number of reviews on the subject at your institution’s library or at your community’s public library. Although various short story assessments are available online, be sure that any web resource you use to compose your research report is credible. In general, academic sources are reputable. Reference libraries that provide access to sources are useful while conducting research; however, you may need a university ID number to access these online resources.
• Examine the testimonials in detail. Occasionally, annotations appear beneath the actual text when an authority provides definitions and explanations of what a certain word or paragraph means. In general, a scholar of the author and the work will read the text from a broader perspective, drawing judgments about where the author drew inspiration from other writers’ works or in creating a particular character or the narrative’s main theme.
• Write your paper using the sources you’ve selected to support the assertions you intend to make in your research report. Utilize your own notes to recall what you observed while reading the tale.

If you have just been told that you need to write a research paper and are feeling apprehensive, we are confident that the following strategies will assist you. First and foremost, whether you are searching for or attempting to comprehend a topic, consult to your professor. Do not be concerned! You constantly undertake research. Consider the most recent time you made a significant purchase, selected a school, or went to the movies. You may have conversed with pals, read product or movie reviews, visited a college campus, or test-driven a car. Academic research is comparable; however, procedures and sources may vary.

A Guide to Writing a Short Story Research Paper

·â â â â â â â  select an engaging question.

Your instructor or professor will either allow you to select your own topic, provide you with a selection of topics to pick from or assign you one. In any case, select a topic or component of your topic that you find interesting. Approach your studies with a critical frame of mind. Critical does not mean “finding defects,” but rather a perceptive and discriminating attitude.

·        Be precise

Construct your question to extract information on the “who, what, where, why, and how” of your problem. Too general subjects should be avoided. An expansive topic will make it tough to limit your research. Consider your research question to be both an anchor and an umbrella: your “who” and “how” questions are your anchor, and it’s up to you to keep everything in control under the protection of your research umbrella.

·        Pay Close Attention to Your Thesis Statement

How has global warming harmed the earth is an example of a too-broad thesis statement. How has global warming impacted marine life in the Pacific Ocean? This is an example of a debatable thesis statement.

·        Make Your Question Challenging

Along with a specific question, your topic should be engaging enough to hold the reader’s interest. Individuals will only be compelled to continue reading if simply a yes or no response is required.

·        Primary and Secondary Data Collection

Begin your search for information that can assist you in answering your question. A research paper may need the utilization of both primary and secondary materials. Primary research requires working with genuine materials or obtaining data in the field. Secondary research is finding out what others have found out about a topic.

·        Support Your Question with a Choice of Sources

Secondary research materials can be acquired in a number of different methods. Utilize the databases within the library. Consider newspapers and periodicals. Visit websites with caution; be certain they are trustworthy. If the domain ends in “.org,” “.gov,” or “.edu,” this is a good (but not foolproof) indicator.

·        Conduct Refined Keyword Research

Although search engines vary, the following guidelines apply to the majority of them.

·        Take Notes While Reading

Using note cards to record pertinent quotations and paraphrases is an excellent method for organizing your thoughts. Make a note of the source’s title, author, and page number to avoid future citation problems!

·        Create a Draft

Create an outline and begin writing your first draught of the paper. The use of an outline might help you keep everything “under the umbrella.” Consider your introduction, the arguments you will make, the sequence in which you will make them, and your planned conclusion. Create a preliminary draught. Before beginning a rewrite, you should set the document aside for at least twenty-four hours and have someone else review it.

·        Finish With the Final Revision

Rewrite your paper in light of your reflection and comments. Remember to proofread carefully for spelling and punctuation errors. Check the correctness of your Works Cited (or References) page as well.

Purpose of Story Research Paper

Consequently, what is the objective of a story research paper ? This style of paper is meant to demonstrate the researcher’s capacity to comprehend, analyze, and interpret the subject matter. Here are some recommendations on how to begin preparing and writing an outstanding research paper on a story.

How to Write a Research Paper on a Story

1.â â â â  read the book twice.

Read the book attentively and have a dictionary and a notebook on hand, if required. Only take notes when something captures your attention or merits highlighting. Remember to record each note’s page number. Try to rest in between readings and record your initial impressions of the book when you’ve completed it. It might be useful in the future.

2.     Choose the Subjects You Will Emphasize In Your Paper

Ensure that your research piece concentrates on certain subjects. For instance, you may opt to emphasize the book’s characters or the plot’s content. This will make outlining your thoughts and writing your research report much simpler.

3.     Plan the Structure of Your Paper

It typically consists of an introductory paragraph, a body that highlights the book’s themes, and a conclusion that summarizes the last issues. Consider extending the main body to many paragraphs or chapters.

4.     Consider the Main Points of Each Paragraph

Before writing, choose a statement for each paragraph that emphasizes the key ideas and shows the approach you will emphasize in your own research paper.

In addition, include any citations or references you desire to emphasize while building paragraphs. Utilize headers and subheadings to simplify your work. Remember that these notes are intended just for your personal use, and organize your thoughts accordingly.

Now that we’ve discussed how to write a story-based research paper let’s examine the structure of your paper.

·        Introduction

The first paragraph explains the book and the major topics you uncovered throughout your research. In addition to a summary of the storyline and an introduction to the main characters, the introduction of a research paper should also include a brief synopsis of the plot and an overview of the main characters. In this section, you should introduce both your research topic and the essential concept of history.

·        The Report’s Primary Content

Make this the first paragraph in which you illustrate your thesis by focusing on one aspect or theme of the story. To illustrate the most crucial components of the story in relation to your plot, you may describe specific situations or include direct quotations. Include any relevant research you’ve conducted about the author, historical era, or gender to bolster your arguments.

Draw the major characters in the story and explain their origins and characteristics. Describe in a few sentences the tension that exists at the beginning of the tale. Discuss the character’s journey and the resolution of the dilemma. Focus on the significant events that shaped the story’s conclusion with little specifics. Consider any lessons or realizations the protagonist learned toward the end of the narrative.

·        Conclusions

Your book report should conclude with a summary of how your thorough method pertains to the entire plot. Three or four phrases that link the relevance of your detailed method to the overarching tale, conflict, and character stance should conclude your paper. Due to the fact that the broad viewpoint frequently involves analysis and critique, conclude the paper with a concluding statement that indicates what you gained from reading the book or a conclusive statement that reveals your ultimate opinion on the idea examined.

Bring the overview of the book to a close by discussing the conclusion and offering your comments or ideas about the text. You must demonstrate comprehension of the author’s message in three to five sentences. To explain the value of the book to you, describe a relationship between it and your personal experiences. The conclusion also affords you the chance to write a succinct evaluation of the book, indicating why you liked or hated it.

·        Go Over Your Paper Again

After you have completed your research paper , you should proofread it. Take a break and delegate your task to someone else. People who are reading the work for the first time typically discover errors that the authors should have made.

When asking a friend to critique your work, the question about his own impressions of the content. Ask direct inquiries and expect direct responses. Inquire as to whether the buddy liked or hated the work, whether reading the paper inspired them to read the book, whether the writing was flowing, etc.

The Bottom Line

We hope our suggestions were helpful. Internet searches for terms such as “ how to write a good research paper on a book ” might complement your understanding of writing a research paper on a story or a book.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How to write a short paper research?

The format of a normal five-paragraph short paper is as follows: introduction (1 paragraph), thesis, major body (3 paragraphs), and conclusion (1 paragraph). This allows your work to be more extensively organised and simpler to understand. Even if you’re writing a brief essay, first impressions are important.

• What should a short research paper include?

Typically, a complete APA-style research paper describing an experimental study would include a Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References section. In addition to figures and tables, many will also include an appendix or appendices.

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Fiction as Research Practice Short Stories Novellas and Novels

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Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 2016

Fiction as Method, 2017

See the world through the eyes of a search engine, if only for a millisecond; throw the workings of power into sharper relief by any media necessary; reveal access points to other worlds within our own. In the anthology Fiction as Method, a mixture of new and established names in the fields of contemporary art, media theory, philosophy, and speculative fiction explore the diverse ways fiction manifests, and provide insights into subjects ranging from the hive mind of the art collective 0rphan Drift to the protocols of online self-presentation. With an extended introduction by the editors, the book invites reflection on how fictions proliferate, take on flesh, and are carried by a wide variety of mediums—including, but not limited to, the written word. In each case, fiction is bound up with the production and modulation of desire, the enfolding of matter and meaning, and the blending of practices that cast the existing world in a new light with those that participate in the creation of new openings of the possible.

Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2008

Fiction literature has largely been ignored by psychology researchers because its only function seems to be entertainment, with no connection to empirical validity. We argue that literary narratives have a more important purpose. They offer models or simulations of the social world via abstraction, simplification, and compression. Narrative fiction also creates a deep and immersive simulative experience of social interactions for readers. This simulation facilitates the communication and understanding of social information and makes it more compelling, achieving a form of learning through experience. Engaging in the simulative experiences of fiction literature can facilitate the understanding of others who are different from ourselves and can augment our capacity for empathy and social inference.

Cambridge Scholars, 2018

This volume invites the reader to join in with the recent focus on subjectivity and self-reflection, as the means of understanding and engaging with the social and historical changes in the world through storytelling. It examines the symbiosis between anthropology and fiction, on the one hand, by looking at various ways in which the two fields co-emerge in a fruitful manner, and, on the other, by re-examining their political, aesthetic, and social relevance to world history. Following the intellectual crisis of the 1970s, anthropology has been criticized for losing its ethnographic authority and vocation. However, as a consequence of this, ethnographic scope has opened towards more subjective and self-reflexive forms of knowledge and representations, such as the crossing of the boundaries between autobiography and ethnography. The collection of essays re-introduces the importance of authorship in relationship to readership, making a ground-breaking move towards the study of fictional texts and images as cultural, sociological, and political reflections of the time and place in which they were produced. In this way, the contributors here contribute to the widening of the ethnographic scope of contemporary anthropology. A number of the chapters were presented as papers in two conferences organised by the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, entitled “Arts and aesthetics in a globalising world” (2012), and at the University of Exeter, entitled “Symbiotic Anthropologies” (2015). Each chapter offers a unique method of working in the grey area between and beyond the categories of fiction and non-fiction, while creatively reflecting upon current methodological, ethical, and theoretical issues, in anthropology and cultural studies. This is an important book for undergraduate and post-graduate students of anthropology, cultural and media studies, art theory, and creative writing, as well as academic researchers in these fields.

Fiction (with its etymological connections to the Latin fingere, to make) is a significant way for researching and representing lived and living experiences. As fiction writers, poets, and education researchers, we promote connections between fictional knowing and inquiry in educational research. We need to compose and tell our stories as creative ways of growing in humanness. We need to question our understanding of who we are in the world. We need opportunities to consider other versions of identity. This is ultimately a pedagogic work, the work of growing in wisdom through education, learning, research, and writing. The real purpose of telling our stories is to tell them in ways that open up new possibilities for understanding and wisdom and transformation. So, our stories need to be told in creative ways that hold our attention, that call out to us, that startle us.

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ENG 102 - Short Story Research Guide

• 7. Write Your Paper

Write Your Paper/Project

Getting started.

• Writing Fundamentals from Writer's Reference Center This has links to articles on writing any document, paraphrasing, quotations, writing a thesis statement, outline, body paragraphs, conclusion, and writing about themes, characters, form, symbols, etc.
• Choosing a Research Topic and Creating a Thesis This guide from the SCC Library provides students information on how to choose a research topic for an assignment including what makes a good research topic, concept mapping, background research, and narrowing a topic and most importantly information about creating a thesis.
• Choosing a Topic (Tutorial) This SCC Library tutorial will walk you through how to choose an appropriate topic for a research assignment and help you turn your research topic into a thesis statement.

MLA Formatting for Papers

If you're using APA Format for your paper - see our APA Guide

• Creating and Formatting MLA Paper This guide from SCC Library provides you instructions in MS Word for formatting a paper correctly including proper font and header.
• Formatting Your Works Cited Page-MLA This guide from SCC Library provides you instructions in MS Word for formatting works cited page correctly including proper font and hanging in-dent.
• Sample Paper in MLA Format Don't forget to format your paper in MLA format. This sample paper will show you how to format your paper.
• Sample MLA Paper with Block Quote Sample MLA paper that includes how do a block quote.
• MLA Guide to Undergraduate Research in Literature This helpful book will walk you through all parts of doing literary research, from how to get started doing literary research to how to find sources about literature.
• Sample Drama Paper with Line Number Citations This sample drama paper will show examples of in-text citations using line numbers.
• Sample Drama Paper with Dialog
• Citing a Play (MLA) This SCC guide shows you how to do a works cited entry and in-text citations for plays.
• Citing a Poem (MLA) This SCC guide shows you how to cite a poem on your works cited page as well as in-text.

Incorporating Sources into a Research Project & Avoiding Plagiarism

• Organizing Your Research This guide from the SCC Library provides information on creating research note cards, source tables, and research outlines to help organize your sources so that you can incorporate them into your paper.
• Incorporating Sources into a Research Project This guide from the SCC Library provides resources on how to properly include sources in a research project without plagiarism, whether through good note-taking, following the research process, or using direct quotations, paraphrasing, or summarizing, etc.
• How to Paraphrase: Avoid Plagiarism in Research Papers with Paraphrases & Quotations (3 min. video) This video explains how to paraphrase information correctly to avoid plagiarism.
• English Composition I: The Writer's Circle, Lesson 9, Part 4, Integrating Research (Video) This video talk about citing sources to avoid plagiarizing. (1 min)

Additional Resources

• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) This site contains resources for writing, research, grammar, mechanics, and style guides (MLA & APA).

The Learning Center (TLC)

• Free, online virtual tutoring is available 24/7 through NetTutor (link found on the  TLC Page  or in D2L)
• Visit the TLC in-person at Giles or other campuses. Visit the  TLC Portal Page (SCC Log in Required)  for hours and English and Computer tutor availability.
• Email your paper/project to them at  [email protected] . They offer a 48 hour turn-around on papers (excluding weekends and holidays), and ask that you send a copy of the assignment as well. The paper needs to be Microsoft Word format (don't share a copy of your OneDrive/cloud account), and please include your due date and SCC college ID number in the email.

Visit the The Learning Center located in the P. Dan Hull Building, rooms E2, E5, E6.  See TLC Portal Page (SCC log in required) for additional locations. Contact The Learning Center for more information .

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Literary Genres — Short Story

Essays on Short Story

Brief description of short story, importance of writing essays on this topic, tips on choosing a good topic, essay topics, concluding thought, summary of "when mr. pirzada came to dine", analysis of conflict in jhumpa lahiri's "this blessed house", made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

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My Favorite Chaperone: Exploring The Themes

Darkness in the short stories of james joyce, description of an abandoned house: a short story, personal development of the main character in raymond's run, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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Bridging The Gap: Comparing "Letters from My Father" and "The Writer"

The effects of class and morality in 'the boarding house' by james joyce, the connection between art and history for julian barnes, analysis of the short story 'the storm' by kate chopin, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

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Analysis of Anton Chekhov’s Short Story "Agafya"

Sister lilith by honorée fanonne jeffers: dismissal of patriarchal values, critical analysis of the lesson by toni cade bambara, our town by thornton wilder: the message to appreciate life, a brief history of perfume, my most embarrassing moment, "a man called horse" as transgression of the western genre, readers’ interpretation of barn burning by haruki murakami, gaze through the window: paralyses in joyce's "dubliners", feeling of imprisonment, life and death in "dubliners" by james joyce, epiphany in james joyce’s araby, already dead: the need for human interaction in butler’s "titanic victim speaks through waterbed", poe’s use of literary techniques in the tell-tale heart, main themes in kate chopin's 'the storm', the yellow wallpaper by charlotte perkins gilman: a woman’s plight, mrs. fullerton’s odd dominos of ambition, two-faced: characterization in bad haircut, analysis of setting in ‘’eveline’’ by james joyce, theme of alienation and isolation in raymond carver's "cathedral", relevant topics.

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EH -- Researching Short Stories: Find Articles

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• Strategies for Short Story Research

Page Overview

This page provides a list of databases for searching for articles in scholarly journals and other periodicals.  A brief description is provided for each database to help researchers choose the most appropriate one for their purpose.  The advantages and disadvantages of different levels of database searching also are discussed,

Electronic Resources

There are a number of electronic resources you can use to research your area. The databases on this page are some of the more useful ones.  You can also search for a specific journal using the search box below. If you cannot find what you need, please contact the Subject Specialist using the contact information under the Home tab of this Guide.

Find Journal(s)

Who has access.

If you are faculty, staff, or currently enrolled in classes at Jacksonville State University, you can access the Library's electronic resources from your home computer.

Where can I access these resources?

Access is granted through an authentication application called EZproxy. It is very easy to use, and it allows our users to access our resources from any browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) or service provider (AOL, Mindspring, etc.).

How Do I Access These Resources?

Access is granted through the same credentials you use for MyJSU.  When you select any of our electronic resources, databases or journals, you will be routed to MyJSU.

It is important to note that users will still be verified through the Library's system, so if there is a problem with your record in the Library’s System, you will be prompted to contact us at 256.782.5758 or 1-800-231-5291.

Electronic Databases

Levels of Database Searching

Levels of electronic database searching

Electronic databases may be searched on three levels:

• singly (native database)
• in groups, provided they all are products of the same vendor (database cluster)
• Gemfinder Discovery Search, which can simul-search multiple databases across different vendor platforms. 

Advantages of searching a native (single) database

• smaller, more manageable number of search results
• allows for more precise subject focusing, particularly in discipline-specific databases

Disadvantages of searching a native database

• fewer search results and therefore fewer article abstracts and full text
• greater possibility of missing useful articles because they are not published in a journal indexed in the database being searched

Advantages of simul-searching multiple databases by provider

• more journals included in the search
• larger number of search results
• more article abstracts
• more full text

Disadvantages of simul-searching multiple databases by provider

• larger number of search results to evaluate
• repetition of records in search results

Advantages of Gemfinder Discovery Search

• permits simul-searching databases provided by multiple vendors 
• includes more books in search results than native databases do
• useful for finding information on very obscure topics
• useful for finding a native database launch point when the location of needed information is unknown

Disadvantages of Gemfinder Discovery Search

• not well suited for searching broad, heavily-researched topics (e.g., George Washington) 
• number of search results harvested can be overwhelming
• results harvested may have little or no relevance to the search performed
• to both reduce results and improve relevance, may require more sophisticated search techniques than needed for native databases                                                                                                                
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Literature Research

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Short Stories

• Plays (Drama)
• Cite Your Work

Critical Analysis

• Writing a Critical Analysis of a Short Story Guide to writing a critical analysis of a short story and a sample essay.
• American Short Story Study Guides Study guides for select short stories plot summary, character analysis, genres & themes, historical context, quotes and more.

Short Stories at LibriVox

Follow the links below for just a couple of the short story offerings from LibriVox  audiobooks. Search the site for much much more!

• Selected Short Stories from P.G. Wodehouse Listen to a collection of amusing and entertaining short stories mostly concerning love and romance.
• Shoes and Stockings: A Collection of Short Stories Listen to tales of love and war, modesty and frivolity, laughter and tears.
• Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky Listen to short stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist and short story writer.

Short Stories by Individual Authors

Here you will find resources specifically related to short stories. They are meant to be consulted in addition to the sources found in other pages of this guide.

This is a list of links to the full text of selected short stories.  You can also visit the library's Literature Resource Center  database to find overviews, critical reviews and analysis of short stories. If you are off campus, you will need your RamCard activated at the library to be able to use your STCC Library bar code and password to log on. For more information, consult the Journals, Articles, and Databases page of this guide.

• Classic Reader Read classic short stories from a wide range of authors spanning several centuries. You'll find authors such as Honore de Balzac, Anton Chekhov, Edgar Allan Poe, and many others.
• Classic Short Stories Search short stories by author or title. Also includes related links to other sites with collected short stories or to individual short story writers.
• Project Gutenberg Short Stories Bookshelf A collection of short stories from around the world with a focus on older works for which copyright has expired.
• Short Stories at East of the Web You can browse the library by genre or search it for a title, author or keyword. Clicking on an author's name lists all their stories along with further information and links. Stories can be read online, printed or downloaded for reading offline or on handheld devices.
• Short Stories Collections Short story collections with full-text in numerous categories such as 100 Great Short Stories, Short Short Stories, Great American, Christmas Stories and more.
• Short Story Guide Stories are categorized by author, place subject / topic and theme.

Short Stories in the STCC Library

In addition to these collected sources, search the catalog for other collections of short stories.

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LIT 2020 - Introduction to the Short Story - Professor Elisa Albo: Short Story Research Paper

Short story research paper.

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Hello and Welcome!

This research page provides access to resources essential to successfully completing your short story research paper assignment. Please read the assignment information to the right carefully and use the sources provided in each of the tabs above:

If you have any questions, contact the South Campus Librarians (see contact information on the far right side of this screen).

• LIT 2020 Research Paper Assignment

Please click on the file below to review the details and requirements of the assignment.

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Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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Key things to know about U.S. election polling in 2024

Confidence in U.S. public opinion polling was shaken by errors in 2016 and 2020. In both years’ general elections, many polls underestimated the strength of Republican candidates, including Donald Trump. These errors laid bare some real limitations of polling.

In the midterms that followed those elections, polling performed better . But many Americans remain skeptical that it can paint an accurate portrait of the public’s political preferences.

Restoring people’s confidence in polling is an important goal, because robust and independent public polling has a critical role to play in a democratic society. It gathers and publishes information about the well-being of the public and about citizens’ views on major issues. And it provides an important counterweight to people in power, or those seeking power, when they make claims about “what the people want.”

The challenges facing polling are undeniable. In addition to the longstanding issues of rising nonresponse and cost, summer 2024 brought extraordinary events that transformed the presidential race . The good news is that people with deep knowledge of polling are working hard to fix the problems exposed in 2016 and 2020, experimenting with more data sources and interview approaches than ever before. Still, polls are more useful to the public if people have realistic expectations about what surveys can do well – and what they cannot.

With that in mind, here are some key points to know about polling heading into this year’s presidential election.

Probability sampling (or “random sampling”). This refers to a polling method in which survey participants are recruited using random sampling from a database or list that includes nearly everyone in the population. The pollster selects the sample. The survey is not open for anyone who wants to sign up.

Online opt-in polling (or “nonprobability sampling”). These polls are recruited using a variety of methods that are sometimes referred to as “convenience sampling.” Respondents come from a variety of online sources such as ads on social media or search engines, websites offering rewards in exchange for survey participation, or self-enrollment. Unlike surveys with probability samples, people can volunteer to participate in opt-in surveys.

Nonresponse and nonresponse bias. Nonresponse is when someone sampled for a survey does not participate. Nonresponse bias occurs when the pattern of nonresponse leads to error in a poll estimate. For example, college graduates are more likely than those without a degree to participate in surveys, leading to the potential that the share of college graduates in the resulting sample will be too high.

Mode of interview. This refers to the format in which respondents are presented with and respond to survey questions. The most common modes are online, live telephone, text message and paper. Some polls use more than one mode.

Weighting. This is a statistical procedure pollsters perform to make their survey align with the broader population on key characteristics like age, race, etc. For example, if a survey has too many college graduates compared with their share in the population, people without a college degree are “weighted up” to match the proper share.

How are election polls being conducted?

Pollsters are making changes in response to the problems in previous elections. As a result, polling is different today than in 2016. Most U.S. polling organizations that conducted and publicly released national surveys in both 2016 and 2022 (61%) used methods in 2022 that differed from what they used in 2016 . And change has continued since 2022.

One change is that the number of active polling organizations has grown significantly, indicating that there are fewer barriers to entry into the polling field. The number of organizations that conduct national election polls more than doubled between 2000 and 2022.

This growth has been driven largely by pollsters using inexpensive opt-in sampling methods. But previous Pew Research Center analyses have demonstrated how surveys that use nonprobability sampling may have errors twice as large , on average, as those that use probability sampling.

The second change is that many of the more prominent polling organizations that use probability sampling – including Pew Research Center – have shifted from conducting polls primarily by telephone to using online methods, or some combination of online, mail and telephone. The result is that polling methodologies are far more diverse now than in the past.

(For more about how public opinion polling works, including a chapter on election polls, read our short online course on public opinion polling basics .)

All good polling relies on statistical adjustment called “weighting,” which makes sure that the survey sample aligns with the broader population on key characteristics. Historically, public opinion researchers have adjusted their data using a core set of demographic variables to correct imbalances between the survey sample and the population.

But there is a growing realization among survey researchers that weighting a poll on just a few variables like age, race and gender is insufficient for getting accurate results. Some groups of people – such as older adults and college graduates – are more likely to take surveys, which can lead to errors that are too sizable for a simple three- or four-variable adjustment to work well. Adjusting on more variables produces more accurate results, according to Center studies in 2016 and 2018 .

A number of pollsters have taken this lesson to heart. For example, recent high-quality polls by Gallup and The New York Times/Siena College adjusted on eight and 12 variables, respectively. Our own polls typically adjust on 12 variables . In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be necessary to have that much intervention by the pollster. But the real world of survey research is not perfect.

Predicting who will vote is critical – and difficult. Preelection polls face one crucial challenge that routine opinion polls do not: determining who of the people surveyed will actually cast a ballot.

Roughly a third of eligible Americans do not vote in presidential elections , despite the enormous attention paid to these contests. Determining who will abstain is difficult because people can’t perfectly predict their future behavior – and because many people feel social pressure to say they’ll vote even if it’s unlikely.

No one knows the profile of voters ahead of Election Day. We can’t know for sure whether young people will turn out in greater numbers than usual, or whether key racial or ethnic groups will do so. This means pollsters are left to make educated guesses about turnout, often using a mix of historical data and current measures of voting enthusiasm. This is very different from routine opinion polls, which mostly do not ask about people’s future intentions.

When major news breaks, a poll’s timing can matter. Public opinion on most issues is remarkably stable, so you don’t necessarily need a recent poll about an issue to get a sense of what people think about it. But dramatic events can and do change public opinion , especially when people are first learning about a new topic. For example, polls this summer saw notable changes in voter attitudes following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. Polls taken immediately after a major event may pick up a shift in public opinion, but those shifts are sometimes short-lived. Polls fielded weeks or months later are what allow us to see whether an event has had a long-term impact on the public’s psyche.

How accurate are polls?

The answer to this question depends on what you want polls to do. Polls are used for all kinds of purposes in addition to showing who’s ahead and who’s behind in a campaign. Fair or not, however, the accuracy of election polling is usually judged by how closely the polls matched the outcome of the election.

By this standard, polling in 2016 and 2020 performed poorly. In both years, state polling was characterized by serious errors. National polling did reasonably well in 2016 but faltered in 2020.

In 2020, a post-election review of polling by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) found that “the 2020 polls featured polling error of an unusual magnitude: It was the highest in 40 years for the national popular vote and the highest in at least 20 years for state-level estimates of the vote in presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial contests.”

How big were the errors? Polls conducted in the last two weeks before the election suggested that Biden’s margin over Trump was nearly twice as large as it ended up being in the final national vote tally.

Errors of this size make it difficult to be confident about who is leading if the election is closely contested, as many U.S. elections are .

Pollsters are rightly working to improve the accuracy of their polls. But even an error of 4 or 5 percentage points isn’t too concerning if the purpose of the poll is to describe whether the public has favorable or unfavorable opinions about candidates , or to show which issues matter to which voters. And on questions that gauge where people stand on issues, we usually want to know broadly where the public stands. We don’t necessarily need to know the precise share of Americans who say, for example, that climate change is mostly caused by human activity. Even judged by its performance in recent elections, polling can still provide a faithful picture of public sentiment on the important issues of the day.

The 2022 midterms saw generally accurate polling, despite a wave of partisan polls predicting a broad Republican victory. In fact, FiveThirtyEight found that “polls were more accurate in 2022 than in any cycle since at least 1998, with almost no bias toward either party.” Moreover, a handful of contrarian polls that predicted a 2022 “red wave” largely washed out when the votes were tallied. In sum, if we focus on polling in the most recent national election, there’s plenty of reason to be encouraged.

Compared with other elections in the past 20 years, polls have been less accurate when Donald Trump is on the ballot. Preelection surveys suffered from large errors – especially at the state level – in 2016 and 2020, when Trump was standing for election. But they performed reasonably well in the 2018 and 2022 midterms, when he was not.

During the 2016 campaign, observers speculated about the possibility that Trump supporters might be less willing to express their support to a pollster – a phenomenon sometimes described as the “shy Trump effect.” But a committee of polling experts evaluated five different tests of the “shy Trump” theory and turned up little to no evidence for each one . Later, Pew Research Center and, in a separate test, a researcher from Yale also found little to no evidence in support of the claim.

Instead, two other explanations are more likely. One is about the difficulty of estimating who will turn out to vote. Research has found that Trump is popular among people who tend to sit out midterms but turn out for him in presidential election years. Since pollsters often use past turnout to predict who will vote, it can be difficult to anticipate when irregular voters will actually show up.

The other explanation is that Republicans in the Trump era have become a little less likely than Democrats to participate in polls . Pollsters call this “partisan nonresponse bias.” Surprisingly, polls historically have not shown any particular pattern of favoring one side or the other. The errors that favored Democratic candidates in the past eight years may be a result of the growth of political polarization, along with declining trust among conservatives in news organizations and other institutions that conduct polls.

Whatever the cause, the fact that Trump is again the nominee of the Republican Party means that pollsters must be especially careful to make sure all segments of the population are properly represented in surveys.

The real margin of error is often about double the one reported. A typical election poll sample of about 1,000 people has a margin of sampling error that’s about plus or minus 3 percentage points. That number expresses the uncertainty that results from taking a sample of the population rather than interviewing everyone . Random samples are likely to differ a little from the population just by chance, in the same way that the quality of your hand in a card game varies from one deal to the next.

The problem is that sampling error is not the only kind of error that affects a poll. Those other kinds of error, in fact, can be as large or larger than sampling error. Consequently, the reported margin of error can lead people to think that polls are more accurate than they really are.

There are three other, equally important sources of error in polling: noncoverage error , where not all the target population has a chance of being sampled; nonresponse error, where certain groups of people may be less likely to participate; and measurement error, where people may not properly understand the questions or misreport their opinions. Not only does the margin of error fail to account for those other sources of potential error, putting a number only on sampling error implies to the public that other kinds of error do not exist.

Several recent studies show that the average total error in a poll estimate may be closer to twice as large as that implied by a typical margin of sampling error. This hidden error underscores the fact that polls may not be precise enough to call the winner in a close election.

Other important things to remember

Transparency in how a poll was conducted is associated with better accuracy . The polling industry has several platforms and initiatives aimed at promoting transparency in survey methodology. These include AAPOR’s transparency initiative and the Roper Center archive . Polling organizations that participate in these organizations have less error, on average, than those that don’t participate, an analysis by FiveThirtyEight found .

Participation in these transparency efforts does not guarantee that a poll is rigorous, but it is undoubtedly a positive signal. Transparency in polling means disclosing essential information, including the poll’s sponsor, the data collection firm, where and how participants were selected, modes of interview, field dates, sample size, question wording, and weighting procedures.

There is evidence that when the public is told that a candidate is extremely likely to win, some people may be less likely to vote . Following the 2016 election, many people wondered whether the pervasive forecasts that seemed to all but guarantee a Hillary Clinton victory – two modelers put her chances at 99% – led some would-be voters to conclude that the race was effectively over and that their vote would not make a difference. There is scientific research to back up that claim: A team of researchers found experimental evidence that when people have high confidence that one candidate will win, they are less likely to vote. This helps explain why some polling analysts say elections should be covered using traditional polling estimates and margins of error rather than speculative win probabilities (also known as “probabilistic forecasts”).

National polls tell us what the entire public thinks about the presidential candidates, but the outcome of the election is determined state by state in the Electoral College . The 2000 and 2016 presidential elections demonstrated a difficult truth: The candidate with the largest share of support among all voters in the United States sometimes loses the election. In those two elections, the national popular vote winners (Al Gore and Hillary Clinton) lost the election in the Electoral College (to George W. Bush and Donald Trump). In recent years, analysts have shown that Republican candidates do somewhat better in the Electoral College than in the popular vote because every state gets three electoral votes regardless of population – and many less-populated states are rural and more Republican.

For some, this raises the question: What is the use of national polls if they don’t tell us who is likely to win the presidency? In fact, national polls try to gauge the opinions of all Americans, regardless of whether they live in a battleground state like Pennsylvania, a reliably red state like Idaho or a reliably blue state like Rhode Island. In short, national polls tell us what the entire citizenry is thinking. Polls that focus only on the competitive states run the risk of giving too little attention to the needs and views of the vast majority of Americans who live in uncompetitive states – about 80%.

Fortunately, this is not how most pollsters view the world . As the noted political scientist Sidney Verba explained, “Surveys produce just what democracy is supposed to produce – equal representation of all citizens.”

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Scott Keeter is a senior survey advisor at Pew Research Center .

Courtney Kennedy is Vice President of Methods and Innovation at Pew Research Center .

How do people in the U.S. take Pew Research Center surveys, anyway?

How public polling has changed in the 21st century, what 2020’s election poll errors tell us about the accuracy of issue polling, a field guide to polling: election 2020 edition, methods 101: how is polling done around the world, most popular.

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