HELPFUL HINTS

Provided here are some reminders and guidelines when developing and administering a survey.

Keep in mind that just because this learning opportunity is titled “Survey Says!,” your interview schedule does not have to be strictly made up of a traditional survey that you might be used to. Utilize a variety of question strategies but be sure the entire group uses the same survey.

You do not have to conduct the interview online. You may conduct it face-to-face or via telephone. The key is to be consistent with how you administer the survey.

Be careful about allowing your personal biases to show up in your questions. Assure your interviewees of their anonymity on the topic and of the results. Be courteous. Do not skew your results. Possible opening:

o “Hi, I am (insert name) and I am doing a survey on (insert group topic) as a class project. Would you be willing to take approximately (insert length of survey to complete, ex: 10 minutes) to take this survey for me?”

Closing: o Express gratitude for taking the survey. Assure interviewees of anonymity.

Questions: o First cover demographics – The decision as to what demographics will be asked

for are the ones the group has decided are the focus for analysis. Some possibilities: age grouping, sex, residence (in terms of city, town,

rural), level of education achieved, income ranges. These are all to be determined by your group.

o Next, work for a good variety and types of questions in the main body of the survey. Remember the end result will be a “highly scheduled standardized” interview format. The principle purpose of this type allows for statistically valid replication.

Consider question strategies discussed in chapter 6 to help you build not only variety, but effectiveness.

Questions can be multiple choice, lists from which preference is determined (be careful of order bias), or bipolar.

o If open-ended questions are used, the tabulation of results should reflect

samples of the variety of responses. Such questions should be used sparingly in a

survey.