We have an extensive practical training program for our postgraduates. However our theory training was not very good. After overcoming a lot of hurdles in its possible implementation, I finally managed to chalk out a program that would ensure teaching the entire syllabus to all postgraduates. However I thought it prudent to ask them if they wanted this. After all, there was no point in teaching them if they would try and recover their lost sleep during those lectures. I conducted an opinion poll, in which the instructions were-
"Write down 'yes' or 'no' on a piece of paper each, along with your residency. Do not write your name. That should remove any inhibitions you may have in giving your opinion on whether you want it or not."
I collected the ballot papers and analyzed them. The results were as follows.
All of them wrote 'yes'. That was a relief. But some of them had written in sentence case, some in capital case. That gave me an idea. I reanalyzed the opinions.
"Write down 'yes' or 'no' on a piece of paper each, along with your residency. Do not write your name. That should remove any inhibitions you may have in giving your opinion on whether you want it or not."
I collected the ballot papers and analyzed them. The results were as follows.
All of them wrote 'yes'. That was a relief. But some of them had written in sentence case, some in capital case. That gave me an idea. I reanalyzed the opinions.
Year of residency
|
All Caps case
|
Sentence case
|
Total Number
|
1
|
6 + 3
|
9
|
18
|
2
|
4
|
4
|
8
|
3
|
2
|
5
|
7
|
Not specified
|
0
|
7
|
7
|
Total
|
12 + 3
|
24
|
36
|
If one considers that people who wrote their years of residency in sentence case and made it a point to write Yes in all capitals, one may conclude they felt very strongly about wanting this education. There were 6/14 such in the first year, 4/8 in the second year, and 2/7 in the third year. There were 3 who wrote 'Yes' in all capitals in the first year, but they had written their year of residency in all capitals too. So one may think that they wrote everything in all capitals when filling questionnaires. In that case there may not be a strong feeling behind that 'Yes'.
'Yes' was written in sentence case by 7/16, 4/8, and 5/7 of the first, second, and third year residents respectively. It was encouraging that they wrote 'Yes', though it would have been even more encouraging if they had written 'YES'. But if my assumption about all capitals suggesting a deeper desire to say yes is not correct, perhaps some or all of them wanted this education deeply.
One of the first year resident wrote 'Yes' as 'YES', which was a special 'Yes'. The letters were very big, and were darkened by repeatedly overwriting. I think the effort was to make it look like a word made bold in a word processor document, to show its importance.
I had instructed the residents to write just their years of residency, and not their names so that they would not feel inhibited, in case they wanted to write 'No'. The year of residency was necessary because I needed to know what were the needs of residents in different years of residency. Despite such clear instructions, 7 residents had not written their years of residency. They had written 'Yes' in upper-lower case. So perhaps they were very busy and did not have time to spend on writing all capitals 'Yes' and definitely not for writing their years of residency. The other explanations could be that they did not understand what I asked them to do, or did understand that but were not bothered to comply with the instruction. They were protected anyway, since their anonymity was maintained.
On the other hand, one resident had written his/her name. That might have been due to not understanding instructions. But I think the reason was to make a good impression on me, to wipe out a previous bad impression. Commendable thinking, I must say.
'Yes' was written in sentence case by 7/16, 4/8, and 5/7 of the first, second, and third year residents respectively. It was encouraging that they wrote 'Yes', though it would have been even more encouraging if they had written 'YES'. But if my assumption about all capitals suggesting a deeper desire to say yes is not correct, perhaps some or all of them wanted this education deeply.
One of the first year resident wrote 'Yes' as 'YES', which was a special 'Yes'. The letters were very big, and were darkened by repeatedly overwriting. I think the effort was to make it look like a word made bold in a word processor document, to show its importance.
I had instructed the residents to write just their years of residency, and not their names so that they would not feel inhibited, in case they wanted to write 'No'. The year of residency was necessary because I needed to know what were the needs of residents in different years of residency. Despite such clear instructions, 7 residents had not written their years of residency. They had written 'Yes' in upper-lower case. So perhaps they were very busy and did not have time to spend on writing all capitals 'Yes' and definitely not for writing their years of residency. The other explanations could be that they did not understand what I asked them to do, or did understand that but were not bothered to comply with the instruction. They were protected anyway, since their anonymity was maintained.
On the other hand, one resident had written his/her name. That might have been due to not understanding instructions. But I think the reason was to make a good impression on me, to wipe out a previous bad impression. Commendable thinking, I must say.
