Designing A

Questionnaire
Submitted by
Priyanka agarwal

Rajan Sharma
Ritik Vermani
Ritika Malhotra
Rohit Arora
 Topics to be discussed

1. What is Questionnaire? Why it is necessary?

2. Steps for designing questionnaire.
3. Types of questionnaire.
4. Types of questions asked in a questionnaire.
5. Guidelines for writing questions.
6. Initial draft to final version.
 QUESTIONNAIRE
 A Questionnaire is a research instrument
consisting of a series of questions and other
prompts for the purpose of gathering
information from respondents.
An instrument to
 collect answers to the questions
 collects factual data
 WHY ??
A well designed questionnaire :

 Gives accurate and relevant information

 Minimizes potential sources of bias
 Time saving
 Easy method
 ADVANTAGES

 Can reach to large number of people relatively

easily and economically.
 Provide quantifiable answers.
 Relatively easy to analyze.
 It is relatively quick to collect information
through questionnaires
 Answers are collected in a more standardized
way.
 DISADVANTAGES
 Open ended questions generate large amount of data which is hard
to analyze.
 Response rates can be poor, people may lack the motivation to
complete or return the questionnaire
 The complexity of designing, producing, distributing, and analysing
the questionnaires may make them expensive and time consuming
 Reasonable sample size is needed.
Steps for designing Questionnaire

 What are you trying to find out?

 How are you going to use the information?

 Telephone, Postal, Web, Face-to-Face?

 Qualitative or Quantitative?
 (Contd..)

 Keep it short.

 Start with something general.

 Place the most important questions in the first half

of the questionnaire. 

 Test your questionnaire on your colleagues.

 TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRE
 Self-administered questionnaires

 On-line Questionnaires
 Postal or mail Questionnaires
 Delivery and collection questionnaires
 Contd..
 Interviewer-administered Questionnaire
(Responses are recorded by interviewer)

 Telephonic Questionnaires

 Structured Interviews

 Interviewers physically meet respondents

ask questions face to face.
A QUESTIONNAIRE
IS ONLY AS GOOD
AS THE QUESTIONS
IT ASKS
Types of Questions Illustrated
1. Pre-coded, single-choice questions
2. Open-ended questions
3. Presence-absence questions
4. Rank-ordering questions
5. Likert-type questions
6. Index development
 Pre-Coded, Single-Choice
 Pre-coded, single-choice questions ask
respondents to indicate which one category
applies
 Categories should be mutually-exclusive
Example
What year are you in?
Freshman 1
Sophomore 2
Junior 3
Senior 4
ADVANTAGES
 The respondent is restricted to a finite set of
responses therefore it is manageable.
 They are easy and quick to answer
 They have response categories that are easy
to code.

DISADVANTAGES
 They can introduce bias
 They do not allow creativity
 They require skill to write and frame
questions.
 Open-Ended Questions
 Excellent way to explore new areas
 Use open-ended questions when:
– Too many response categories (year of birth)
– You don’t wish to impose categories on
respondents
– Qualitative – source of quotations
– Determining appropriate categorization
– You want a change in pace for respondents
Example: what are your favorite TV programmers?
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………...
ADVANTAGES
They allow respondents to express their ideas
spontaneously in their own language.
They can add new information.

DISADVANTAGES
Difficult to answer and analyze.
Require effort and time.
Respondent should be able to write.
Are more likely to be left blank
 Presence-Absence Questions
 Presence-absence questions ask respondents
to check off which items in a list do or do not
apply to them

 Less commonly used than other types of

questions
 Presence-Absence: Example
Have you ever had contact with a physically handicapped
person in any of these groups? (Circle to indicate “yes” or
“no” for each group)
Yes No
Community ----------- 1 0
Family ----------------- 1 0
Relatives -------------- 1 0
Elementary school -- 1 0
High school ----------- 1 0
University class ------ 1 0
As a co-worker ------- 1 0
 Rank-Ordering Questions
 Rank-order questions ask respondents to
indicate an ordering of response items, usually
from most preferred to least preferred
 Must be done with great care
Ask for only three most important items
Must make instructions explicit
 These types of questions should be avoided or
minimized because they take time.
Rank-Ordering Questions: Example
Rank-order the three most important characteristics you want in
the job you make your life’s work. (Place a 1 beside the most
important one; a 2 beside the second most important one; and a 3
beside the next most important one.)

High salary.…………. ____

Security.…………….. ____
Continued interest….. ____
Power……………….. ____
Prestige……………… ____
Excitement………….. ____
 Likert-Type Questions
 Likert-type questions ask respondents to
indicate how much they agree or disagree
with a statement
 Response options originally included: strongly
disagree, disagree, are undecided or neutral,
agree, strongly agree
Today often used with numbered response
options
 Used in the development of indexes
Likert-Type Questions: Example
In the following, circle a number to indicate the extent to
which you agree or disagree with each statement:
I believe capital punishment represents the most effective
deterrent to murder.
Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Strongly agree
 I believe a murderer can be rehabilitated to become a
responsible, functioning member of society.
Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Strongly agree

 I believe a life sentence is a satisfactory penalty for

murder.
Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Strongly agree
 Guidelines for writing questions
1. Keep the vocabulary simple
a. Narrative
b. Expository
c. Documents
Example: how often your students typically involved in the following
activities?
 Silent reading in class
 Learning new vocabulary systematically(for ex from lists)
 Learning to use illustrations(for ex graphs, tables)
 (contd..)
2.Keep the question short.
For ex. When affluent from a paper mill can be
drunk and exhaust from factory smokestacks can be
breathed, then human kin will have done a good job
in saving the environment….don’t you agree that
what we want is zero toxicity: no effluent?

3.Avoid double barreled questions.

For ex. Are you satisfied with the present system of
handling closed reserve and open reserve readings?
________yes ____________no
 Contd..
4.Avoid hypothetical questions.
For ex. “If you were governor what would you do to
stop crime?”
5.Don’t overtax the respondent memory.
For ex. Do you recall any commercial on that
program?
6.Avoid double negatives.
For ex. ‘Student self-evaluation should not be
allowed’
7.Avoid overlapping response categories.
8.Beware of leading questions?
Example: “You wouldn’t say that you were in favour
of school on Saturday morning, would you?”,
might read in in a more subtle form:
“Would you say that you are not in favor of school
on Saturday morning?”
INITIAL DRAFT TO FINAL VERSION
 Pattern of questions
Funnel and Inverted funnel sequence
 Guidelines for item placement
- non sensitive and demographic questions
should be placed first
- items of major interest to the research should be
placed next
- controversial topics should be placed last
- same topic items should be grouped together
 Contd..
 Covering letter should be there if it is to be
mailed or distributed as it includes the objective
of doing research.

 In a mailed or self-administered questionnaire,

writing instructions for answering questions
should be there.

 The interviewer should be instructed on the

amount of direction to give to the respondent.
 Pre-testing the questionnaire is an essential
step before its completion as it helps

-To reformulate or eliminate ambiguous or

superfluous questions
-To provide material to design the answer
categories for open questions that need to be
closed.
- To determine whether the questionnaire is
balanced in its structure, and to discover
whether instructions were properly followed
CODEBOOK

- A codebook should be prepared in order to

enter the data into a computer.
- The codebook is a computer-based
structure file designed to guide data entry.
- It contains a field for every piece of
information which is to be extracted from the
questionnaire – starting from the identification
code which allows each respondent in the
sample to be uniquely identified.