A questionnaire is a data collection technique in which a respondent answers a series of questions.
It takes time and effort to create a questionnaire that will collect the data you need. Taking a step-by-step approach to questionnaire development, on the other hand, can help you come up with an effective way to collect data that answers your specific research question.
Writing a questionnaire could be for a project or a report on a survey that you were asked to conduct. Whatever the case, you should write it well and avoid making too many corrections.
The content below shows how you can achieve your aim:
Determine the purpose of your survey.
What type of data do you hope to collect with your questionnaire? What is your primary goal? Is a questionnaire the most effective approach to gather this data?
Make a research question for yourself. This might be a single question or a series of questions, but it should be the focus of your questionnaire.
Make one or more hypotheses that you’d like to test. The questions on your questionnaire should be designed to evaluate these hypotheses in a systematic manner.
Select the type (or types) of questions you want to ask.
There are numerous types of questions you can put on your questionnaire depending on the information you want to collect, each with its own set of benefits and drawbacks.
The following are examples of common questionnaire questions:
- Dichotomous question: a dichotomous question is one that is either a yes/no or an agree/disagree question. It’s the quickest and easiest question to answer, but it’s not a particularly sensitive indicator.
- Open-ended inquiries allow the respondent to express themselves in their own words. They can be valuable for gaining insight into the respondent’s feelings, but they can be difficult to analyze when the data is large. To answer the question “why,” it’s best to employ open-ended inquiries.
- Multiple choice questions are questions that have three or more mutually exclusive categories and ask for one or more solutions. Multiple choice questions facilitate data analysis, but they may not provide the respondent with the response they desire.
- Rank-order (or ordinal) scale questions: this form of question requires your respondent to rank or choose items from a collection in a specific order. It may, for example, ask your responders to rank five items from least to most important. These kind of questions compel discriminating among options, but they don’t explain why the responder discriminated in the first place.
- Inquiry using a rating scale: this type of question allows the respondent to rate a specific issue on a scale of one to ten. You can create a scale with an equal number of positive and negative options, such as “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree,” for example. These questions are fairly open-ended, yet they don’t provide a solution to the question “why.”
Is important to do determine the type of questionnaire question you would like to use for your project so as to enable you state in clear terms who carried out the questions.
Make a list of questions for your research.
Your questionnaire’s questions should be straightforward, concise, and direct. This will ensure that you receive the most accurate responses possible from your respondents
Make your questions concise and straightforward. Complex sentences and technical language should be avoided because they will simply confuse your respondents and lead to inaccurate responses. Only ask a single question at a time. This will assist to avoid any misunderstandings. Asking for private or “sensitive” information should be avoided.
Calculate how long the questionnaire will take.
It may be beneficial for someone to know whether your quiz will take 10 minutes or 2 hours before they sit down to complete it. If you provide this information at the start of your questionnaire, you’ll obtain more complete surveys at the end.
Explain what the questionnaire is for.
Many people will not answer to a survey unless they understand why it is being asked. A lengthy explanation is unnecessary; instead, a few simple phrases will work just fine. For example: ”You will be asked 15 questions about your food and exercise habits in this survey. We’re looking for a link between healthy eating, regular exercise, and the occurrence of cancer in older persons”.
Make sure your questionnaire is presented in a professional manner.
Your questionnaire must have a professional appearance if you want people to trust you as a data collector.
Always double-check your work. Check for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Include a title in your document. This is a fantastic approach for your respondents to get a fast understanding of the survey’s purpose.
Thank you to everyone of your respondents. Thank them for taking the time to fill out your questionnaire.
Distribute your questionnaire to as many people as possible.
You must decide on the best method for spreading your questionnaire. There are a few typical methods for disseminating questionnaires:
- Use a website like SurveyMonkey.com to conduct your research. This website allows you to create your own questionnaire using their survey builder, as well as other features such as the ability to buy a target audience and evaluate your results using their analytics.
- Consider sending a letter. If you’re mailing your survey, always include a self-addressed stamped envelope so respondents may simply return their responses. Check to see if your questionnaire will fit in a normal business envelope.
- Face-to-face interviews should be conducted. Because it is more difficult for a respondent to avoid answering a question when it is asked directly, this can be an excellent approach to ensure that you are reaching your target demographic and can reduce missing information in your questionnaires.
- Make use of the telephone. While this is a more time-efficient method of gathering data, getting people to reply to telephone questionnaires can be problematic.
Describe any incentives that might be present.
Anything you may offer as a prize at the end of the questionnaire qualifies as an incentive. Incentives can take numerous forms: monetary, desired rewards, gift certificates, candies, and so on. Offering rewards has both advantages and disadvantages. Incentives have the potential to attract the wrong type of respondent. You don’t want to include responses from those who fill out your questionnaire quickly in order to earn the prize at the end. Offering an incentive has this risk.
Incentives can entice people to reply to your survey who otherwise would not have done so. This is a circumstance when incentives can assist you in meeting your required number of respondent.