Introduction
Questionnaires are typically used for survey research to determine the current status or "situation," or to estimate the distribution of characteristics in a population. Writing a questionnaire is one of the most critical stages in the survey development process. Much of questionnaire construction is common sense, but there are intricacies with which survey authors should be familiar. It is common sense to require that the concepts be clearly defined and questions unambiguously phrased; otherwise, the resulting data are apt to be seriously misleading. Here are some ground rules to keep in mind before writing the first word: Each question should relate directly to your survey objectives. Every respondent should be able to answer every question (unless instructed otherwise). Each question should be phrased so that all respondents interpret it the same way. Each question should provide answers to what you need to know, not what would be nice to know. The following are the four main parts of a survey questionnaire. Though each of these parts is different from each other, it is important to understand that all of them are necessary for drafting a good questionnaire.
2. The Introduction
The beginning of your survey should include an introduction that is enticing and clearly states the purpose of your research. Because web surveys are self-selecting (i.e., you have no control over who chooses to participate), it is important that your introduction grabs the attention of potential respondents and encourages their participation. It is easy for online survey participants to abandon a survey, so you must communicate up-front why they should help you with your survey. Failure to do so will decrease the number of participants. The introduction should also include any instructions about completing the survey, and an estimate of how much time it will take.
1. Select only one: Single select questions with responses shown vertically, horizontally, in columns, or in a pulldown menu. 2. Select all that apply: Multiple select questions where users may select several different responses to a specific question. 3. Free form text: Limited: 1 to 250 characters long. Unlimited: respondents may enter as much text as they want 4. Numeric value: Requires respondents to enter a numeric value within a range you specify 5 Date value: Requires respondents to enter a date in a format you specify, and within a range you specify. 6. Matrix: Group of questions that have the same response options or scales. They can be either single select or multiple select. 7. Data block: A group of questions with related responses. Response types can be specified as text, numeric or date values. You can specify "sum to" values for numeric data blocks. 8. Rank order: Place in order of importance items from a defined list. You can specify the number of rank options. You might consider setting data validation parameters for many question types. For instance, you can specify a range for numeric answers, or date format for date answers. Additionally, you can mark certain questions as "Response Required," which will enable you to have complete responses and reduce the number of incomplete questionnaires.
4. The Close
You can include text, instructions, or additional information at the end of your survey. This section is also used to thank your respondents for their time and effort.
Identifying which audience you intend to survey will affect the scope of your research. It will also affect how you compose your questionnaire. To ensure that it is appropriate for your audience, "field test" your questionnaire with people similar to your respondents before administering the final version. You can further ensure that you measure the right audience by starting the survey with appropriate qualifying questions that filter out respondents who aren't a part of your target audience.
Fixed response questions are quick to answer and score, which facilitates analyzing the results. Occasionally, however, fixed response questions may draw misleading conclusions because the respondent cannot qualify responses, e.g. "Yes, but" or "It depends" where only Yes/No are given as options. 2. Narrative Response (Qualitative)
Narrative responses allow respondents greater freedom of expression. There is no bias due to limited response ranges and the respondents can qualify their answers. On the other hand, these responses are time consuming to code and the researcher may misinterpret (and therefore misclassify) a response.
employees, etc. Secondly, the scale in the second question is evenly distributed versus the first one, which is biased towards the positive end of the scale. You can also reduce "random" error by removing unusual or confusing questions or by changing their arrangement.
8. Provide space to tell more: At the end of the survey, give respondents an opportunity to comment about the survey or general topic using an open-ended question. 9. Put important questions first: Respondents may get fatigued or hurried by later questions. Include questions about demographic information at the end so the earlier parts of questionnaire focus on gathering data necessary to meet your survey objectives. 10. Avoid agreement bias: By framing both positive and negative questions, your respondents will evaluate each question rather than uniformly agreeing or disagreeing to all of the responses. 11. Avoid the response option "other": Careless responders will overlook the option they should have designated and conveniently mark the option "other." 12. Keep your survey short: Limit the number of questions based on your target audience. For example you can ask more questions to customers as compared to web-site visitors. By evaluating how important each question is to gathering the information you need, and by carefully wording the response options, you will collect information which will yield more satisfactory and meaningful results.