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Strategies for Effective Questionnaires. Yaakov Birnbaum. Do’s and Don'ts. There are ways to make a series of questions more effective in gathering information.
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Strategies for Effective Questionnaires Yaakov Birnbaum
Do’s and Don'ts • There are ways to make a series of questions more effective in gathering information. • By carefully evaluating the need of every question used in an instrument and carefully wording the responses, you will collect information which will yield more satisfactory and meaningful results.
Problems Occur… • In order to obtain a realistic study, the questions should be designed to not annoy, frustrate, confuse, or offend the subjects involved. • A clear-cut need for every question should be established.
Do’s • Keep questionnaires brief and concise. The investigator must define precisely the information desired and to write as few questions as possible to obtain it. • Feedback on initial set of questions. • Confidential and personal questions at the end. May result in respondents discontinuing the questionnaire.
More Do’s • Categories are an effective way to gather info. 1) Never 2) Seldom 3) Occasionally 4) Always • Positive and Negative stimuli are also nice. This requires evaluation of each response, rather than uniformly agreeing or disagreeing to all of the questions. • Appropriate language and word selection also important.
Response Language Simple assessment 1) Agree 2) Disagree If opinions not strong or well informed 1) Agree 2) Tend to agree 3) Tend to disagree 4) Disagree
Don’ts • Avoid open-ended questions. Hard to respond. • Avoid option, “other.” Easy option if unsure of answer. Non-accurate results. • Avoid scale point proliferation. Rarely, occasionally, fairly often, almost always. Confuses and annoys respondents.
More Don'ts • Avoid responses at mid-point and neutral responses (i.e.; undecided). Might not give realistic views or opinions. • Avoid ranking. Tedious to some, directions misinterpreted. Alleviate by asking the most preferred / least preferred.
In Closing….. • By adhering to these pointers, even you can organize a questionnaire that is sufficient in collecting information, and in doing so, not ticking off your study participants.
