USING

QUESTIONNAIRES

Steps to a Successful Survey

Step 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.

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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