Gathering Information

There are many times when you will need to find something out. Sometimes this may involve asking people in order to gather your information. Maybe you will have to ask a specific person questions to find out what they know. Other times you may have to ask a number of people (maybe clients, maybe other staff) questions to get their opinions; this may involve writing surveys. On still other occasions you will have to do some research, perhaps on Internet.

This handout is to give you a starting point in how to write surveys (to gather opinions from a number of people) and how to gather information on the Internet.

How to Write a Good Survey (adapted from InfoPoll, StatPac and Custominsight)

A survey, or questionnaire, should not be too long.It should use plain English and the questions should be easy to answer. It takes careful writing, editing, and rewriting to make a good survey.

A good questionnaire is all about the questions. There are good questions, not so good questions and truly bad questions.Your goal is to write good questions. A good question is one that each person will interpret in the same way. A good question should be short and straightforward.

What follows are guidelines for creating useful surveys and writing good questions:

Write a short questionnaire

Create a draftsurvey, then ask yourself: what is essential to know? what would be useful to know? what is unnecessary?Keep the essential, include the most useful of the useful and get rid of the rest.

Start with interesting questions

Save the questions that might be difficult or threatening for later.

Be non-threatening.

When respondentsare concerned about the consequences of answering a question in a particular manner, they may notbe truthful. Questionnaires where people know they are anonymous (no one will know who answered the survey) are more likely to give you honest responses.

Put your questions in a logic order

Grouping questions that are similar will make the questionnaire easier to complete, and the respondent will feel more comfortable. Questionnaires that jump from one unrelated topic to another feel disjointed and are not likely to produce high response rates. Also, the issues raised in one question can influence how people think about later questions. It is good to ask a general question before asking specific questions. For example, you should avoid asking a series of questions about a free banking service and then a question about the most important factors in selecting a bank.

Transition smoothly

Writing a survey is similar to writing anything else. Transitions between questions should be smooth.

Pre-test your survey

Before sending a survey to a target audience, send it out as a test to a small number of people you can query after they have taken the survey. After they have completed the survey, ask them if they had problems answering any questions. Have them explain whateach question meant to them and whether they think it belonged on the questionnaire or not.

Naming your survey

This can be particularly important if you are emailing your survey to people who are not expecting a survey. Some people discard emails based entirely on the subject or sender. You should consider what will get the interest of the recipients. Just make sure you don’t lie with your name. Here are examples of survey names that might be successful in getting attention:

  • Evaluation of Services of the Benefits Office

  • Your Opinion About Financial Services

  • Please Respond By Friday
  • Memo From the Chief Executive Officer
If you can offer something (or the chance for something) in return for the person doing the survey then you can use that prize as part of your name as a lure.
  • Free Subscription

  • Win a notebook computer

Introduction

Yourintroduction should help to motivate the respondentto complete the survey. A good introduction should be short and includes:

  • Purpose of the survey

  • Why it is important to hear from the respondent

  • What may be done with the results and what possible impacts the survey may have.

  • Person to contact for questions about the survey.

  • Due date for response

Use more closed-ended questions rather than open-ended ones

Most questionnaires rely on close-ended questions(questions with a fixed number of answers to choose from). These are useful because the respondents are limited to a set of choices.

An open-ended questionrequires a written response. For example: "What do you do to keep your clients happy?". Too many open-ended questions will tire your respondents and reduce the amount and quality of information you gather.Avoid open-ended questions that ask a "yes/no" question or those that invite a specific answer.

To see ifan open-ended question is well written answer the question yourself.Read it as if you are a respondent. Can you answer with one or two words?Is it is too vague or general? If it invites you to give the kind of response that you want it is probably a good survey question.

Use simple words

For example, "What is the frequency of your automotive travel to your parents' residence in the last 30 days?" is easier to understand if you rewrite it as, "About how many times in the last 30 days did you drive to your parent's home?"

Don't write leading questions

Leading questions demand a specific response. For example: the question "Which day of the month is best for the newly established company-wide monthly meeting?" leads respondents to pick a date without first deciding if they even want another meeting.Another example is:

Do you think it is necessary for teachers to assign too much homework?

The wording of a question is extremely important. One type of leading questioncan be easily spotted because it uses negative phraseology. As examples:

Wouldn't you like to receive our free brochure?

Don't you think universitycosts too much?

Avoid questions with a "right" answer

It is an easy and common mistake to write items that have a socially "correct" or desirable answer.

Avoid difficult concepts

Some questions involve concepts that are difficult for many people to understand.

Balance rating scales

When the question uses a rating scale, make sure that your scale includes both extremes.

Don't make the list of choices too long

If the list of answer categories is long and unfamiliar, it is difficult for respondents to evaluate all of them. Keep the list of choices short (4 to 5 choices).

Make sure your list accommodates all possible answers

Asking a closed-ended question that does not accommodate all possible responses can confuse and frustrate the respondent. For example, consider the question:

What brand of computer do you own?__
A. IBM PC
B. Apple

What if the respondent doesn't own a microcomputer? What if s/he owns a different brand of computer? What if s/he owns both an IBM PC and an Apple? There are two ways to correct this kind of problem.

The first way is to make each response a separate dichotomous question. For example:

Do you own an IBM PC? (circle: Yes or No)

Do you own an Apple computer? (circle: Yes or No)

Another way to correct the problem is to add the necessary response categories and allow more than one response. This is the better method because it gives you more information.

What brand of computer do you own?
(Check all that apply)

__Do not own a computer
__IBM PC
__Apple
__Other

Have mutually exclusive options

A good question is totally clear in the mind of the respondent. There should be only one correct or appropriate choice for the respondent to make. An obvious bad example is:

Where did you grow up? __

A. country
B. farm
C. city

A person who grew up on a farm in the country would not know whether to select choice A or B. This question would not provide meaningful information. Worse than that, it could frustrate the respondent and the questionnaire might find its way to the trash.

Use questionswhere you can expect a variety of responses from people

If everyone is likely to answer a question the same way why bother asking that question?You don’t get any useful information. For example:

What do you think about this report? __

A. It's the worst report I've read
B. It's somewhere between the worst and best
C. It's the best report I've read

Since almost all responses would be choice B, very little is learned. Design your questions so they are sensitive to the differences between respondents. As another bad example:

Are you against drug abuse? (circle: Yes or No)

Again, there would be very little variability in responses.

Avoid questions that ask people to remember things from too long ago

The farther back you ask someone to remember, the more unreliable their memory is. You will get far more accurate information if you ask, "In the last month,how many movies have you seen in a movie theater?" rather than, "In the last year,how many movies have you seen in a movie theater?

Do not use unfamiliar words or abbreviations.

Write questions that everyone will understand in the same way. Don't assume that everyone has the same understanding of the facts or the same knowledge base. Identify even common abbreviations.

Avoid double negatives

Respondents can easily be confused trying to figure out the meaning of a question that uses two negative words.Don’t not pay attention to this advice.

Avoid vague or overly general questions or words

Many words have different meanings for different people.For each question, ask yourself whether there are ways it might be misinterpreted. Also ask yourself what you will learn from the responses, positive or negative, from each question. If you don’t think you will learn something from a question,it is probably too vague.

Avoid Double-Barrelled Items

These are items that ask about more than one thing. If you see "and" or "or" in your question, chances are it is double-barrelled. Data from items like this are useless because you have no way of knowing what part of the question each respondent was thinking of when responding.

For example, a researcher investigating a new food snack asks "Do you like the texture and flavor of the snack?" If a respondent answers "no", then you do not know if the respondent dislikes the texture or the flavor, or both.

Do not presuppose or assume

Try to avoid questions that make unreasonable assumptions. For example:

Are you satisfied with your current car insurance? (Yes or No)

This question will be a problem for someone who does not currently have car insurance. Write your questions so they apply to everyone. This often means simply adding an additional response category.

Are you satisfied with your current car insurance?

___Yes
___No
___Don't have car insurance

One of the most common mistaken assumptions is that the respondent will know the correct answer to the question. Industry surveys often ask very specific questions that the respondent may not know the answer to. For example:

What percent of your budget do you spend on direct mail advertising? ____

Very few people would know the answer to this question without looking it up, and very few respondents will take the time and effort to look it up. If you ask a question similar to this, it is important to understand that the responses are rough estimates and there is a strong likelihood of error.

Look at each question. If there is any possibility that the respondent may not know the answer to your question, include a "don't know" response category.

How to Research on the Internet

(adapted from Library Tutorial Online, Monash University)

There are more kinds of information on the Internet than most of us know. There are also more ways to get at information than just doing a standard search.

Examples of kinds of research information areavailable on the Internet:

  • company reports and financial information
  • conference proceedings
  • contact details for other experts
  • laws, government announcements and parliamentary debates
  • news and current affairs
  • databases of reference material
  • places where you can discuss topics and ask for help

Before You Start

To search effectively you must consider exactly what question you are trying to answer. This is calleddeveloping a search strategy.Following the steps below will help you to clarify your question:

  1. What is the topic you want to know about?
  2. What are the questions you want answered? List them.
  3. Are there other ways in which you can express these key questions?
  4. What words would best describe your subject? Try to be as precise as possible.

When you have completed these steps you will have a list of terms to help you start your search.

If you do not understand all the terms consult an encyclopaedia or dictionary.

Ways to Search on the Internet

  1. Search engines

These let you search using keywords that describe your subject.

Use a search engine when you are looking for less common words, narrow topics, and to return a large number of pages.

How they work:

A computer program (a "bot" or "spider") is constantly searching the Web. Information found is sent to a central database. When you enter a search term, you are getting information from this central database.

Examples:
Google
AltaVista

Advantages of a search engine:

  • very wide coverage of the Web, therefore you should find more material
  • many try to sort material by how relevant it is to your query
  • offer the opportunity to refine and enhance your search
  • many offer links to useful related material
  • many offer a directory listing of popular sites

Disadvantages of a search engine:

  • can often return too much material
  • minimal sorting of material returned, particularly of similar material at the same address
  • different engines cover different pages, so you need to search in more than one
  • all engines have slightly different rules for refining a search
  • some engines have been found to include paid listings in search results that are not clearly labelled as advertisements
  1. Metasearch engines

These let you search across many search engines at once.

Use a metasearch engine as a starting point when you are looking for a unique word or name, or an overview of what is available.

How they work:

Rather than searching the Web, a search request is sent to several other search engines at the same time. The results from all search engines are then put together in the metasearch engine.

Examples:
Dogpile
search.com

Advantages of a metasearch engine:

  • searches in many different search engines
  • some are able to eliminate duplicate records, or pages on similar topics at the same address
  • some will sort your pages into topics, or will eliminate duplicate pages

Disadvantages of a metasearch engine:

  • can often return too much material
  • because they are searching in many different search engines, all with different rules, complex searching techniques may not be possible
  • some don't sort the records very well, or will only show some of the search results
  1. Subject gateways

Subject Gateways provide access to reliable andup-to-date web resources for all subjects, which have carefully chosen and quality checked by experts in their field.(Staffordshire U)

Examples: Yahoo, Open Project Directory.

Others are specifically designed to cover a particular subject area in depth, or are specialised in providing academic information.

How they work:

Subject specific pages have been compiled into one site to help you locate useful web pages. These pages have been sorted into categories to make them easier to find.

Use a subject gateway when you are looking for well defined topics, less material, or access to databases or journal articles

Examples:
Yahoo
BUBL
lii.org

Advantages of subject gateways:

  • less likely to find sites that are no longer available
  • organisation of gateway makes finding material on a topic easier
  • information is likely to be substantial and relevant

Disadvantages of subject gateways:

  • smaller coverage of the web
  • may not list very new sites
  • subject organisation and categories not always clear
  • maintenance is dependent on the amount of human input available

A Simple Search Strategy for Internet Searching

After each step evaluate what you have found to see if it is relevant and useful.

  1. Check thesubject guidesfor relevant links, and subject gateways for your topic.
  2. Try a metasearch engine.Use phrase searching if possible. Don't use too many words. This may find some introductory pages to help you build your search, or it may even find exactly the material you require.
  3. Note any alternative terms that seem useful for further searching, such as synonyms, different spellings and variations in names.
  4. Refine your search by using the facilities built into a search engine. Try and eliminate as much irrelevant material as possible at this stage.
  5. If you can't find anything that answers your question, seek help by contacting experts in the field, or by joining a mailing list or discussion group on the topic.

Understanding Your Search Results