Designing a questionnaire
Designing a good questionnaire involves a series of efforts that start with asking yourself who are the respondents and what are your research objectives. This brings us back to the previous stage in the design process, the research design stage. If you have established clear research objectives and understand your sample, then you ready to design a suitable questionnaire. You first need to determine the topics you want to ask about, decide on the ordering of the questions, and finally write-up the questions.
I highly recommend conducting a PILOT TEST to check the suitability of the questionnaire to your sample and objectives.
Designing effective questions
To design effective questions you need to determine the format of the questions and the contents of the questions.
Question format
Formats of questions can come in various forms.
Close-ended questions
Partially open-ended questions
Open-ended questions
You should select the appropriate format for a question that would result in a valid and reliable answer to what your are looking for.
Rating scales
Rating scales are often used in questionnaires. Scaling is "the assignment of objects to numbers according to a rule" (retrieved from trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/scalgen.htm on 8/10/2000). The important types of scales are the Likert scale, the Thurstone scale, and the Guttman scale.
Criteria for writing effective questions
Several criteria exist that may help you in writing effective and unbiased questions. The following are some of these recommendations:
Avoid double-barreled questions
Use words with respondent's experience
Do not assume that the respondent has much information
Avoid complicated words with multiple meanings
Explicitly define even simple terms
Be specific about time and place
Avoid leading answers
Avoid emotionally charged words
Avoid embarrassing answers
Use clear, relevant and to the point wording
Ask one thing at a time
Techniques for administering questionnaires
A questionnaire can be administered in different ways: through the mail; by telephone; group administered; or through a structured interview.
Interviews
Interviews can be face-to-face interviews or focused interviews. They can be structured interviews or unstructured interviews.
Focused Interviews
Focused interviews are in-depth interviewing techniques that attempts to find detailed information from people about a particular situation. This information may include their definition of the situation, their feelings towards the situation, and the reactions towards the situation. (YOU NEED TO CHECK THE REQUIRED READING FOR MORE ON FOCUSED INTERVIEWS)
Probing techniques are important in eliciting the required in-depth information from the interviewees.
Advantages and disadvantages of survey methods
Check the following TABLE for a clear comparison between questionnaires and interview techniques. The comparison is based upon several issues of importance to the research or the researcher.
The following items are topics for discussion during this lecture. Students should prepare their thoughts and ideas around these topics.
What are survey techniques?
How to design a questionnaire?
What are the criteria for writing good questions for a questionnaire or an interview?
Advantages and limitations of survey techniques
How to probe in focused interviews
Zeisel, J. (1984). Inquiry by Design: Tools for Environment-Behavior Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 10, pp.157-177, Standardized Questionnaires).
Zeisel, J. (1984). Inquiry by Design: Tools for Environment-Behavior Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 11, pp.178-196, Asking Questions: Topics and Format).
Zeisel, J. (1984). Inquiry by Design: Tools for Environment-Behavior Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 9, pp.137-156, Focused Interviews).
Reading types:
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This page last revised: 09/05/03
