This part deals with the basic
characteristics of the questions and it's effect on the respondent. Hence a
deep insight has been given as to what kind of questions should be framed so
that it is beneficial for both the respondent and the researcher. Following
are the guidelines that needs to be followed-
Some questionnaires project the feeling that the author tried to visualize
all the possible conversations that might be triggered off after listening
to the question. On the contrary there are some questions that give the
impression that a committee might have incorporated them, generated by it's
members. Such an approach should be avoided as it may lead to such questions
that are relevant only to a small proportion of people. This kind of an
activity leads to frustration and annoyance on the responders part and
resent and take time to answer the questions. Such an attitude might lead to
non return of filled questionnaire or inaccurate response. To avoid this
kind of a situation one needs some time and effort and is not all that
difficult.
The first step towards this effort is that of mental discipline on the part
of the question maker and must precisely decide as to what he wants to ask
and frame questions accordingly. Peripheral questions should be avoided
which are just nice to know. The author must consult the potential customers
and colleagues regarding the needful.
The next step is to obtain a feedback from small yet representative sample
of potential respondents. This kind of an activity might involve informal,
open-ended interviews with several potential responders. It is good to ask
the responders to criticize this preliminary version of the questions and in
such a manner they would answer the question as if they are research
objects. The main objective of such an activity is to determine the
relevance of the questions and also to measure the extent of problems that
might be faced while obtaining responses. It might be apparent in this kind
of an activity that a respondent might be offended by a certain kind of
question.
The above mentioned activity should not be mistaken with field trail as a
field trial is done which is done under different set of circumstances like
when there is substantial uncertainty in areas like, Response rate- if a
field trail yields an unsatisfactory desired response rate then the design
or the different data gathering procedures must be undertaken.
- Question applicability: Some questions, even after
being reviewed might seem unnecessary like, the same answer may be given
by many respondents for a same question thus making it irrelevant.
- Question performance: Field trials may also reveal
that some questions are defective and also that pairs or sequences of
questions might yield responses that are inconsistent from a number of
trial responders, thus a need of re framing the question is felt.