Part 1 Data Design Module

More often, surveys are considered as an easy research approach. Nonetheless, just like any other research methods and approaches, it is easy to perform a survey that is not only poor in quality but that that lacks real value. Drafting survey questions that yields actionable insights is all about details. This paper critiques a survey as well as identifying a checklist of recommendations on the good practice of conducting a survey.

Furthermore, it hopes to be useful to novice researchers for them to produce high quality and standard work that is credible and trustworthy. The paper does not anticipate to provide a manual of a survey should be conducted but instead pinpointing the common oversights as well as pitfall that researcher should avoid making their job reliable, valid as well as credible. A critique is a logical manner of objectively reviewing particular research to highlight its strengths, weakness as well as its applicability.

Multiple choice answers should be mutually exclave so that participants make clear choices. The survey failed to give mutually exclusive options. Additionally, some choices were ambiguous. For instance,

What is your age?

0-10

10-20

20-30

30-40

40+

Such answers would be frustrating for respondents and might invalidate the results. What if the respondent was 10, 20 or even 30?

The survey had poorly phrased questions, and therefore different respondents can interpret it differently. The survey questions asked multiple questions at once. This is disadvantageous because the respondents may experiences challenges answering the questions and this may influence their responses. For instance, the question on:

Which is the most economical and fastest internet provider for you?

How often do you go out for movies and dinner?

Each of the above questions is asking two things at a time. Anything that is fast is not necessarily economical.  Furthermore, even though people use dinner and movies are common terminologies, they are still two questions. The two activities should have been separated into woo different questions.

It is appropriately using the unbalanced scale and for instance using words such as Excellent- Very Good- Good- Fair to determine the level of satisfaction in customers. This represents the ratings as well as rankings of the services provided. Since fair is lowest on the scale, it means that what is slightly above it is probably not a good one.

What is your opinion on….

Pretty good

Great

Fantastic

Incredible

The best

From such, it puts the lowest point of the scale as pretty good and the centers a fantastic. This scale cannot collect the true opinions of respondents.

The survey pretty much covered all possible answer choices. For instance

You indicated that you eat at MacDonald’s fast food once a month? Why don’t you eat there more often?

Never heard of it

I don’t like the tastes of the food

Never heard of it

The healthiness of the food

Any other reason

Price value

Another example is

What type of vehicle do you own?

Van

SUV

Sedan

Trucks,

Cross-over,

Convertible

Motorcycle

No vehicle

 

Over 90% of respondents do not have any challenges while answering this question. This is because all possible answers have been listed.

Strengths and weaknesses of surveys

Strengths

This approach yields data that is based on the real world observations

Surveys yield a large amount of data in a short time at a relatively cost.

Due to its breadth of coverage of many people or events, it is therefore likely to obtain a representation of the sample as compared to other approaches. Consequently, it can be generalizable to a population.

Its universality also makes it an asset since different researchers can use it

It offers reliability as well as consistency since the survey questions are standardized and phrased in the same way for respondents. This is only for well-drafted questions.

Weaknesses

Having a high response to a survey can be challenging

The data obtained more likely to have inadequate details or in-depth knowledge of topics being investigated.

This method is inflexible since only general questions can be asked.

 

Recommendations

Even though not entirely exclusive, the following survey tips should be considered. When the researcher is drafting the questions, the focus should be put on creating clear, simple survey questions with appropriate as well as a complete set of multi answers choices. Excellent questions coupled with excellent answer choices yield excellent research success. Every question should be reviewed to see if it only asks one clear question at a time. It is good practice for researchers to have the points nearly equidistant on the scale. That is, the rankings should have equal conceptual distance from one point to the other. For instance, I strongly disagree- disagree- neutral- agree- strongly agree. The bottom point should be the worst case scenario while the top point as the best case scenario.

At times, some respondents may not be comfortable to give out some information. This is more often on issues pertaining to occupation, income, finances, and personal hygiene, and family life, political, religious or personal beliefs. This is because they consider them to be too intrusive. Privacy is essential to the majority of people and as such, they should be assured of confidentiality. This can make it less challenging to obtain private information.

What is your race?

What is your age?

Did you vote in the last election?

What are your religious beliefs?

What are your political beliefs?

What is your annual household income?

 

As much as most research does not support the Prefer Not to Answer (PNA) option, most respondents appreciate this non-closure alternative.  Moreover, different cultural groups may react to those questions differently. In a study conducted recently, it discovered that even though U.S respondents skip sensitive questions, Asian respondents take it a notch higher by discontinuing the survey entirely.  Therefore, these questions should only be asked when necessary. But still, they should include the PNA option.

 

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