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Asking Questions - The Definitive Guide To Questionnaire Design ...

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QUESTIONNAIRES FROM START TO FINISH 317<br />

<strong>The</strong> Testing Procedure<br />

Of the eighteen-step process we have listed, the first six steps were<br />

discussed earlier in this book. Yet possessing scientific knowledge of<br />

the survey-design process is only the first step in being able to design<br />

a successful questionnaire. Ultimately, every questionnaire must be<br />

tested and refined under real-world conditions. Testing takes the<br />

form of pretest interviews and of soliciting peer feedback of draft<br />

questionnaires (step 7).<br />

Conducting Pretest Interviews<br />

Even after years of experience, no expert can write a perfect questionnaire.<br />

Among the three authors, we have more than one hundred<br />

years of experience in questionnaire construction, and we have<br />

never written a perfect questionnaire on the first or second draft,<br />

nor do we know any professional social scientists who claim they<br />

can write questionnaires that need no revision. We do, however,<br />

know many beginners who have spent all of their limited resources<br />

sending out a first draft of a questionnaire, only to dishearteningly<br />

discover that some key questions were misunderstood and not<br />

answered in a usable way. It is even more important for researchers<br />

with limited resources to pilot-test their questionnaires before<br />

spending all their money. If you do not have the resources to pilottest<br />

your questionnaire, don’t do the study. At least pretest your<br />

questionnaire with ten to twelve colleagues or (better yet) with representatives<br />

from the population you will be surveying. Such a<br />

pretest will help you determine if the questionnaire is gathering the<br />

data you need and whether it is convenient and clear for respondents<br />

to fill out. Additionally, a pretest will often suggest problems<br />

you were unaware of, and it can help you avoid costly mistakes.<br />

Ask respondents if the questions were straightforward and<br />

whether the format made logical sense. In reviewing the answers to<br />

the questionnaire, you will get a good idea if people are responding

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