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

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322 ASKING QUESTIONS<br />

debrief the interviewers. <strong>The</strong> debriefing may alert the survey analyst<br />

that some questions must be discarded or treated cautiously<br />

because of unexpected problems. It may also be very useful in helping<br />

to improve the design of future questionnaires.<br />

Concluding Remarks<br />

<strong>The</strong> process described in this chapter may appear too complex for<br />

very simple questionnaires. Most questionnaires, however, require<br />

not only careful initial design but also careful follow-through to<br />

ensure that the respondent, interviewer, data processors, and analyst<br />

are all able to perform their roles. Also, the final stages typically<br />

involve only a small section of the questionnaire if the questionnaire<br />

has been carefully designed. In addition, the questionnaire<br />

continues to improve at every stage of the design process.<br />

An inexperienced questionnaire writer who follows the steps<br />

recommended in this chapter will be able to create an effective<br />

questionnaire and experience the same success as an experienced<br />

questionnaire writer.<br />

A final word of caution. Even well-worded and well-designed<br />

questionnaires may be unsatisfactory if they do not obtain the information<br />

required to achieve the research objectives. <strong>The</strong>re is no reason<br />

why research objectives cannot be achieved if they are<br />

formulated before the questionnaire is designed. Waiting until the<br />

data are collected before formulating the research problem can<br />

destroy the value of even the best-designed questionnaire.<br />

After the hard and careful work of preparing a questionnaire, it<br />

is always enormously satisfying to listen to interviews, read the questionnaires<br />

and the tabulations, and see that the questionnaire has<br />

obtained the data that were needed. We hope you have a rewarding<br />

experience.

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