surveys

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1. What types of questions are surveys useful for and why? 2. What types of questions are surveys not use for and why?

There are two types of questions that can be asked in a survey, ie, Close ended and open ended questions. Each one has its own pros and cons.

Open-ended questions are questions to which there is not one definite answer. Open-ended questions may be a good way to break the ice with a survey, giving respondents an opportunity to answer in their own words. Example: "Are there any other comments about the course you would like to add?" The responses to open-ended questions can be very useful, often yielding quotable material (Fink, 1995). The drawback to open-ended questions is that the responses are more difficult to catalogue and interpret (Fink, 1995).

Closed-ended questions have a finite set of answers from which the respondent chooses. One of the choices may be "Other." It is a good idea to allow respondents to write in an optional response if they choose "Other." The benefit of closed-ended questions is that they are easy to standardize, and data gathered from closed-ended questions lend themselves to statistical analysis (Fink, 1995). The down side to closed-ended questions is that they are more difficult to write than open-ended questions.

source: http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/surveyquest/index.htm

3. Is it possible to design a survey to get the answers a surveyor wants? How is this done?

Writing good survey questions ensures that valued responses contribute to answering the
overall research questions of the study. For the respondents, good survey questions
prevent confusion, omissions, and errors in responding.
Here are common areas of concern when developing survey questions:
? Reading level of questions (appropriate use of language)
 Use language easily understood by the respondents.
 Avoid terms that may be unfamiliar or technical.
? Clarity of ...