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Content of Your Questionnaire
When considering the content of your questionnaire, obviously the most important consideration is whether the content of the questions will elicit the kinds of questions necessary to answer your initial research question. You can gauge the appropriateness of your questions by pretesting your survey, but you should also consider the following questions as you are creating your initial questionnaire:
- Does your choice of open or close-ended questions lead to the types of answers you would like to get from your respondents?
- Is every question in your survey integral to your intent? Superfluous questions that have already been addressed or are not relevant to your study will waste the time of both the respondents and the researcher.
- Does one topic warrant more than one question?
- Do you give enough prior information/context for each set of questions? Sometimes lead-in questions are useful to help the respondent become familiar and comfortable with the topic.
- Are the questions both general enough (they are both standardized and relevant to your entire sample), and specific enough (avoid vague generalizations and ambiguousness)?
- Is each question as succinct as it can be without leaving out essential information?
- Finally, and most importantly, try to put yourself in your respondents' shoes. Write a survey that you would be willing to answer yourself, and be polite, courteous, and sensitive. Thank the responder for participating both at the beginning and the end of the survey.
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