The questionnaire contains several design flaws such as double-barreled questions, leading response options, lack of context around time periods, and sensitive questions. Many questions are open-ended making analysis difficult. Pre-testing is recommended to address these issues and improve the clarity, structure, and validity of the questionnaire.

1. 1.4.3
1.4.3
QUESTIONNAIRE
QUESTIONNAIRE
1.3 Develop and use a questionnaire
and justify its design for a particular
purpose

2. QUESTIONNAIRE?
• The structured techniques for collecting
primary data in a social science survey
• commonly used to collect data on attitudes
such as opinion, expectation, satisfaction and
emotion.

3. DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE?
• proper designing – success of collecting data
• highly specialized job and requires a great
deal of skill and experience
• No hard and fast rules in designing the
questionnaires - very much an art

4. ISSUES WHILE DEVELOPINGQUESTIONNAIRE
1. What information will be sought?
2. What type(s) of questionnaire will be required?
3. How that questionnaire(s) will be
administered?
4. What the content of the individual question will
be?

5. ISSUES WHILE DEVELOPINGQUESTIONNAIRE
5. What the form of response of each question
will be?
6. How many questions will be used and how the
individual questions will be sequenced?
7. Whether the questionnaire shall be disguised
or undisguised?
8. Whether the questionnaire shall be structured
or unstructured?

6. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
1. Covering Letter
• Introduction, state objectives, self-address
envelope, promises, special inducement
2. The number of question should be as few as
possible.
3. Questions should be logically arranged
e.g: How much you earn every month?
Are you working? Yes
1. 2. No

7. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
4. Questions should be short and simple
5. Questions of a sensitive nature should be
avoided - may be willingly answered in writing
or should be asked at the end of the interview.
- e.g: sources of income
6. Instructions to the informants
- specify the time
7. Footnotes

8. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
8. Questions should be capable of objective
answer
a. Dichotomous questions
- only two alternatives are listed (Yes, No)
- e.g:
Have you ever been a patient in this hospital
before?
1. Yes 2. No

9. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
8. Questions should be capable of objective
answer
b. Multiple choice questions
- All possible answers to a question are listed
and the respondent
- e.g: Classification:
Highest Education Level
1. SRP/LCE/PMR 4. Bachelor Degree
2. SPM/STPM 5. Master Degree
3. Diploma 6. Doctoral Degree

10. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
Multiple choice questions
- e.g: Lists
Please specify your main mode of transport
to and from college. (You may tick more than
one)
1. Car 2. Motorcycle 3. Bus
4. On foot
5. Others Please specify:………………..

11. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
Multiple choice questions
- e.g: Ranking
Rank the following subjects in order of
favourable (from 1 being most favourable to 4
being least favourable)
1. Marketing 3. QTB
2. OB 4. MFRD

12. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
Multiple choice questions
- e.g: Scale or Rating
How likely are you to try this activity?
Very likely 1
Quite likely 2
Neither likely nor unlikely 3
Quite unlikely 4
Very unlikely 5

13. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
Multiple choice questions
- e.g: Scale or Rating
Respondents could be asked whether they
agree or disagree with particular statements:
Strongly Agree 1
Slightly Agree 2
Neutral 3
Slightly disagree 4
Strongly disagree 5

14. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
9. Questions should be capable of objective
answer
c. Open-ended or free answer questions
- e.g:
The BBA students after completion of the
course may be asked questions like:
• What is your opinion of the quality of
teaching?......................................................
• What do you feel about the facilities
offered by the
college?................................

15. DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE?
10. Answers to questions should not require
calculations
11. Pre-testing the questionnaire
- pre-tested with a group (pilot test)
10. Cross-checks
11. Incentives to respondents
- e.g: of gift coupons, a sample of a product

16. PRE-TESTING QUESTIONNAIRE (PILOT TEST)
• A researcher should not except the first draft of
his/her efforts that will result in a usable
questionnaire
• same role as test marketing
• pre-test provides the real test of the
questionnaire and the mode of administration

17. PRE-TESTING QUESTIONNAIRE
Advantages:
• find out what are the shortcomings. Even the
best-designed questionnaire may have some
problems.
• the extent of the non-response
• Greater co-operation of the informants
significant revision  pre-test (suggests no
new revisions)  final questionnaire

18. QUESTIONNAIRE RESEARCH FLOW CHART
Questionnaire research design proceeds in an
orderly and specific manner
Design Methodology
Determine Feasibility
Develop Instruments
Select Sample
Conduct Pilot Test
Revise Instruments
Conduct Research
Analyze Data
Prepare Report

19. ROLE OF INTERVIEWERS
• not all persons who collect data are
interviewers
• Skills quality of data
Someone is employed to collect data they may
need:
1. good communication skills
2. a confident and professional appearance;
and
3. use of a car and telephone

20. DISCUSSION:
The following questionnaire has been designed to find
out some information about the users of National Public
Library. There are some errors in this questionnaire.
Read through and see how many you can find.
1. How often do you use the services offered by the
library?
2. How many books or publications have you
borrowed from the library?
0___ 50–100___ 5–10 ___ 10–15 ___ 20–50
___ 1–5 ___

21. DISCUSSION (ANSWER):
Introduction:
• There is no introduction telling the respondent what
the purpose of the survey is and what will be done
with the results.
- In this type of survey, it is important to receive
accurate results in order to "screen out" those
respondents who are not library users.
• name and telephone number would not be asked-
for open and honest results.
- People like to know that the information they
provide is confidential and will be kept that way.

22. DISCUSSION:
Question 1:
• This question is open and may be better worded as
a closed question in order to be able to compare
the responses of the people questioned.
• This question does not address over what period of
time (i.e., in the last 12 months, the last month, the
last week, etc.) the library was visited.

23. DISCUSSION:
Question 2:
• The question asks about borrowing books or
publications. What if you borrowed both?
• What response would you select if you had
borrowed five books and publications? Would you
select 1–5 or 5–10?
• The other issue with this question is the reference
period. Has the borrowing taken place over the last
year, the last 10 years or the last month?

24. DISCUSSION:
Question 3:
• As a closed question, respondents are only given the
option of four answers to choose from. However,
there may be other reasons for going to the library.
- An "Other" category with a "please specify" space,
or a longer list to choose from, such as social
activity or book signing could also be added.
- As well, it might prove useful to add an instruction
to this question that states "mark all that apply".
This way the respondent can choose several
options instead of one.

25. DISCUSSION:
Question 4:
• The question as asked is fine, but does not go far
enough in getting the details. The library likely needs
to know why the respondents needs were not
satisfied.
- This question should include a second part that
asks the respondent to describe why his or her
needs were not satisfied.

26. DISCUSSION:
Question 5:
• This is a double-barreled question. The first problem
is that you are asking the respondent two different
things in one question. (services and attitude)
• The second problem consists of the response
categories provided.
- There are no instructions as to how to grade the
responses. Do respondents rank the response? If
so, what does 1 represent? Does 5 stand for poor
or excellent?

27. DISCUSSION:
Question 6:
• This is an open question, which makes the various
possible responses difficult to code and tabulate.
- If a list of answers (including a final "Other"
choice with a space to specify the response) were
provided, it would be a lot easier for respondents
to answer and data analysers to tabulate the
results.

28. DISCUSSION:
Question 7:
This question asks for a "Yes" or "No" response,
however, the respondent may not know, or may have
no opinion regarding any improvements to the library.

29. DISCUSSION:
Questions 8, 9 and 10:
• The first problem with these questions is that
Question 9 ("Are you aware of these proposals?")
should come before Question 8 ("Do you approve of
disapprove of the recent proposals...?") since
Question 9 is only relevant to Question 8 if the
answer is "Yes".
• Question 9 could be improved by instructing
respondents to select the appropriate "Yes" or "No"
category.

30. DISCUSSION:
Questions 8, 9 and 10:
• In Question 8, the respondents are asked whether
they approve or disapprove with the entire set of
proposals.
- What if the respondent was not aware of the
proposals?
- What if the respondent agreed with some of the
proposals and disagreed with others?
The available responses may not give you a true
measure of the proposals. The wording of Question 8
should be changed in order to avoid bias in the
response.

31. DISCUSSION:
Questions 8, 9 and 10:
The "Go to" part of Question 8 also contains a
problem. It sends the respondent to Question 11,
therefore respondents who answered "disapprove" to
Question 8 would not be given the opportunity to
respond to Questions 9 or 10. The instruction should
read "(Go to Question 10)".

32. DISCUSSION:
Question 11:
• This question is worded in a way that presents the
reader with a double negative. Because it is not
entirely clear what the question is asking, some
respondents could interpret it in different ways.
A simple solution would be to reword it to say: "Are
you in favour of the library extending the hours of
operation?" Include a list of responses such as
"__Yes __No __ Don't care".

33. DISCUSSION:
Question 12:
• This particular question is a sensitive one and one
respondent's may not feel inclined to answer or
answer truthfully. It may be best to delete this
question.
• If, however, the level of education is relevant to the
information being collected and needs to be asked,
then a closed question would allow for better
quantitative analysis.