USING
QUESTIONNAIRES
Steps to a Successful Survey
1 – What do you want to know?
 Step 2 – What is the audience?
 Step 3 - Audience + Purpose = Design
 Step 4 – Pilot survey
 Step 5 – Gather Information
 Step 6 - How will this information be
used?
 Step 7 - Celebrating your success.
 Step
What do you want to know?
• Be clear about the goal of the questionnaire.
• What will it accomplish?
• What do you want to find out?
• What information do you require - Opinions, Preferences,
Ideas, Priorities, etc?
What is the audience?
• How are you going to use the questionnaire?
• Identify who should be interviewed?
• How will you select the sample?
• How big should the sample be?
Audience + Purpose = Design
How should you write the questions?
• What will you do with the responses?
• Have you included one open-ended type question?
• Have you included a copy of the questionnaire in the
appendix of the investigation?
•
Pilot survey
• Are the instructions clear and were the questions
understood?
• Are the alternative options appropriate?
• Are the answer what you expected?
• Can the responses be presented as charts, graphs
and tables.
• Do you need to modify the questionnaire?
Gather Information
• Have you completed the survey?
• Have you collated responses using tally
charts?
• Have you recorded results in a spreadsheet?
• Have you included a copy of the spreadsheet
in the appendix of the investigation?
How will this information be
used?
• Have you used the most appropriate chart, graph or
table to present the results?
• Have you used the evidence from the questionnaire to
form a conclusion about local/Wales perspective of the
Individual Investigation?
Celebrating your success
• Does your evidence contribute to all assessment criteria?
• Planning –
Have you explained why you designed and used a
questionnaire, why and how you selected your sample,
and how the results will be analysed?
• Using Sources – Have you included questionnaire and
results?
• Presentation – Have you used a variety of charts, graphs
and tables to present the results?
• Conclusion and evaluation – Have you drawn conclusion
from responses and evaluate how well the survey,
questionnaire and sample provided required evidence?
Celebrating your success
Types of Questions
• Two important aspects are structure of the questions
and the types of response formats for each question.
• There are many different types of questions.
• The most common are closed and open questions.
Closed (or multiple choice)
questions
• Respondent choose an option and are asked to tick or
circle the chosen answer.
• These questions provide data which is easy to
present in the form of a chart, graph or table.
Two choices questions
This type should be limited to only 1 or 2.
Did you watch television at all yesterday?
Yes / No
Do not present in pie chart or bar chart, just
state a fraction or percentage.
Multiple Choice questions
Which of these shops do you prefer?
Next / River Island / Top Shop / Primark
Present as bar chart if interested in how
many for each option but use a pie chart
if proportion of the whole is important.
Number scales
Make sure categories do not overlap, they
must be mutually exclusive.
1. How old are you?
Under 20 20 – 30 31 – 40 41 – 50 51 – 60
61 or more
2. How often do you watch TV on a typical day?
Less than 1 hour
1 – 3 hours more than 3 hours
Present as bar chart if interested in how many for each
option but a pie chart if proportion of the whole is
important.
Rank order
Please indicate, in rank order, your preferred
chocolate bar, putting 1 next to your favourite
through to 5 for your least favourite.
Double Decker
Crunchie
Wispa
Mars Bar
Creme Egg
……..
……..
……..
……..
……..
Present as a table or component bar chart
Agreement scale
4 options ensure a choice is made, with 5
options many choose the middle.
How much do you agree with the following
statement?
Assessment by coursework is easier than
assessment by examination.
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree
Rating scale
1. How would you rate this product?
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
2. On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is not interested at all
and 5 is very interested.
How interested are you in using this exhibit in an
exhibition?
1 2 3 4 5
Present as bar chart if interested in how many for each
option but a pie chart if proportion of the whole is
important.
Open-ended questions
• Respondents answer in their own words.
• These questions can be difficult to analyse.
• Should be at the end of the questionnaire.
What are your favourite TV programmes?
(Please specify their titles)
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What do you think are the main causes of racism?
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