Why use surveys?

These are paper based or on-line sets of questions used to gather data from a large number of people when it would be too difficult to interview them.

The advantages of administering a questionnaire instead of conducting an interview are:

• lower costs

• better samples

• standardisation

• respondent privacy (anonymity)

The primary advantage is lower cost, in time as well as money. Not having to train interviewers eliminates a lengthy and expensive requirement of interviewing. The questionnaire can be administered simultaneously to large groups whereas an interview requires each individual to be questioned separately. This allows the questions to reach a given number of respondents more efficiently than is possible with the interview. Finally, the cost of postage should be less than that of travel or telephone expenses.

A good questionnaire takes a long time to plan and create and only a short time to complete. They have questions which are easy to understand and answer with a variety of ways the user can respond such as:

• multiple choice,

• circle the correct response and

• short answer, fill in the spaces, style questions.

How to write a good survey.

Keep the language simple.

Analyse your audience and write on their level. Avoid the use of technical terms or jargon. An appropriate corollary to Murphy's Law in this case would be: If someone can misunderstand something, they will.

Keep the questions short.

Long questions tend to become ambiguous and confusing.

Keep the number of questions to a minimum.

Higher return rates correlate highly with shorter surveys. Ask only questions that will contribute to your survey.

Limit each question to one idea or concept.

A question consisting of more than one idea may confuse the respondent and lead to a meaningless answer.

Consider this question: "Do want the screen to be light pink or light yellow?" What would a yes (or no) answer mean?

Do not ask leading questions.

These questions are worded in a manner that suggests an answer. Some respondents may give the answer you are looking for whether or not they think it is right. A properly worded question gives no clue as to which answer you may believe to be the correct one.

Use subjective terms such as good, fair, and bad sparingly, if at all.

These terms mean different things to different people. One person's "fair" may be another person's "bad." How much is "often" and how little is "seldom?"

Allow for all possible answers.

Respondents who cannot find their answer among your list will be forced to give an invalid reply or, possibly, become frustrated and refuse to complete the survey. Wording the question to reduce the number of possible answers is the first step. Avoid dichotomous (two-answer) questions (except for obvious demographic questions such as gender). If you cannot avoid them, add a third option, such as no opinion, don't know, or other. These may not get the answers you need but they will minimise the number of invalid responses. A great number of "don't know" answers to a question in a fact-finding survey can be a useful piece of information. But a majority of other answers may mean you have a poor question, and perhaps should be cautious when analyzing the results.

Avoid emotional or morally charged questions.

The respondent may feel your survey is getting a bit too personal!

Include a few questions that can serve as checks on the accuracy and consistency of the answers as a whole.

Have some questions that are worded differently, but are soliciting the same information, in different parts of the questionnaire. These questions should be designed to identify the respondents who are just marking answers randomly or who are trying to game the survey (giving answers they think you want to hear). If you find a respondent who answers these questions differently, you have reason to doubt the validity of their entire set of responses. For this reason, you may decide to exclude their response sheet(s) from the analysis.

Organise the pattern of the questions:

• Ask easier questions first.

• To minimise conditioning, have general questions precede specific ones.

• Group similar questions together.

• Pretest (pilot test) the questionnaire.

This is the most important step in preparing your questionnaire. The purpose of the pretest is to see just how well your cover letter motivates your respondents and how clear your instructions, questions, and answers are. You should choose a small group of people (from three to ten should be sufficient) you feel are representative of the group you plan to survey. After explaining the purpose of the pretest, let them read and answer the questions without interruption. When they are through, ask them to critique the cover letter, instructions, and each of the questions and answers. Don't be satisfied with learning only what confused or alienated them. Question them to make sure that what they thought something meant was really what you intended it to mean. Use the above 12 hints as a checklist, and go through them with your pilot test group to get their reactions on how well the questionnaire satisfies these points. Finally, redo any parts of the questionnaire that are weak.