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

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Chapter Twelve<br />

<strong>Asking</strong> <strong>Questions</strong> FAQs<br />

Survey designers frequently have questions about how best to<br />

design a survey. This chapter summarizes questions asked by people<br />

working in survey research and questions asked by graduate students<br />

conducting research and taking survey research courses.<br />

What <strong>Questions</strong> Should I Ask?<br />

Some questionnaires give the impression that their authors tried to<br />

include every conceivable question related to the topic. Others appear<br />

to have been drafted by various members of a committee and<br />

patched together. Strong efforts should be made to avoid such fishing<br />

expeditions, because they yield long, frustrating, and annoying<br />

questionnaires that have many questions relevant to very few. Respondents<br />

can resent having to complete this kind of survey and<br />

may feel that it does not deserve their full attention. Excessively<br />

long surveys result in poor response rates, careless answers, and useless<br />

results.<br />

<strong>The</strong> first step in deciding what questions to ask involves precisely<br />

defining what information is needed and writing the fewest<br />

number of questions to obtain it. (See Chapter One.) Secondary or<br />

peripheral “Wouldn’t it be interesting to know?” questions should<br />

be avoided. Because well-defined goals are the best way to ensure<br />

good questionnaire design, many problems can be traced back to<br />

the design phase of the project. Being able to express the goals of a<br />

questionnaire in a few clear and concise sentences will help keep<br />

the design of the questionnaire focused.<br />

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