Data Collection
In writing my survey, I learned the importance of choosing only a handful of questions that are most relevant to answering my research questions. I originally found myself wanting to write between 15-20 questions for my survey, but I soon realized that it is more effective to have less questions, so long as they are all crucial to my research. Having too many questions can, in some cases, be counterproductive, as the longer the survey is the higher the chance people will begin to stop answering questions or put less thought into their answers. In addition, the participants who will be taking my survey are simply volunteering and will not be given any sort of reward, which gives them less of an incentive to answer every question or be more thoughtful in their responses. Therefore, I learned the importance of writing a concise survey that still addresses the key components of my research topic.
One challenge I faced when writing my survey was avoiding double-barreled questions. When I was initially brainstorming questions for my survey, I noticed that many of the ones I came up with were two questions in one. For example, I originally wrote "I actively attempt to conceal my status as formerly incarcerated from other students and faculty". However, upon a second revision, I came to realize that this question is ineffective, as it asks two questions at once, and the respondent is therefor forced to give one answer to two questions, when their answers may vary. To fix this, I split the question into two questions: "I actively attempt to conceal my status as formerly incarcerated from other students" and "I actively attempt to conceal my status as formerly incarcerated from faculty".