Questionnaires

Key Facts and Exam Tips

When designing a questionnaire it is important to decide precisely what it is you want to find out. You will probably have a topic in mind that interests you, but you need to identify what factors are relevant to your enquiry. For example, if you want to ask people about their choice of trainers, do you want to know about the price they would be prepared to pay, the brands they prefer, the colours or design features, or some combination of these?

Decide what data you want, and then design your questions. Here are some tips:

• Keep questions as short and as simple as possible.
• Try to make your wording very clear so that the person you are asking knows exactly what you want to know.
• Make sure each question only asks one thing.
• Avoid using questions that are too vague or that will generate long, wordy answers that you can’t easily record.
• Check that your question doesn’t suggest that there is a ‘right’ answer — that it isn’t biased.
• Avoid questions that are too personal or may cause embarrassment.
• It often helps to give people choices to select from, but think carefully about these. They should cover all possibilities; there should not be too many; they should not be too vague; and they should not overlap.
• Think about the sorts of answer you would expect to get from your question. Ideally your question should produce a single clear response that is easy to record.

Think about how you will record the responses. It may be useful to design a data-capture sheet.

Conduct a pilot survey to test your question and highlight any problems.

Decide how and where you are going to conduct your survey, remembering that you will usually want to capture a broad range of views. Consider whether your sample is biased. If you are going to conduct a survey in school, for example, if possible ask people in other classes, in other year groups, both boys and girls.

Decide on a realistic number of people to ask. Think about how you will process the information collected, as this may affect the sample size.

Remember to be as polite as possible, particularly when questioning members of the public.

Ask one question at a time and give people a chance to think about their answer.

Don’t rely on memory: record the results as you carry out the survey.

When you come to organise and analyse the results, remember your original aim and try to answer the question you were interested in. Other things may emerge from the survey which could also be investigated.

Use graphs and diagrams that are appropriate to your data. Remember to add your comments on the results, in a form that is easy for someone else to understand. Your conclusion should summarise your main findings.