Survey questionnaire aims at gathering some information concerning certain problem that the researcher identifies. It seeks information from the people who may provide the necessary information. Therefore, the tool must as reliable as possible and must be considerate of the necessary principles that would make it perfect and suitable for its purpose. Problems with the survey questionnaire are likely to cause extensive challenges to the suitability of the survey. Different survey questionnaires have different problems.
The first problem that the Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) survey questionnaire indicates is its length. The questionnaire is extremely long. There are different sections with different questions, making it extremely long. It would be wise to understand that long questionnaires are likely to keep off the respondents. People would prefer to respond to a questionnaire that does not consume much of their time (The Relationship Between the Research Question, Hypotheses, Specific Aims, and Long-Term Goals of the Project, 2014).
The size of the questions is another critical problem in the survey questionnaire. The size of the question may encourage or discourage the respondents. For example, questions A1, A4A, and A9 among others are extremely long. The questions carry information whose analysis could be in a shorter form. It does not mean that the respondents will answer the questions accordingly depending on the explanation by the researcher. Long questions are likely to confuse the respondent making him or her give unreliable details or answer regarding a particular question (Sincero, 2013).
The problem of long questions is solvable through proper analysis of the research problem. Once the researcher has come up with exclusive details of the problem, he or she must develop reliable questions. The long questions may be changed to a short form through summary of their content. Special words may be significant in summarizing a long sentence. Also, it would be wise to include a summary of the research problem in the introduction section of the survey questionnaire to make people understand the aim of the survey questionnaire. With such information, it will be extremely easy to develop short questions (StateUniversity.com, 2013).
The survey questionnaire also overlooks a problem of the sensitivity of the questions it uses. For example, it is wise to differentiate between open and close-ended questions in the questionnaire. There are numerous challenges that come up with poor structuring of questions in the survey (Penwarden, 2013). There must be a proper direction on how certain questions in the survey will be answered. In this case, there are challenges on how one is expected to answer certain questions. Some of the questions in the survey require an outright answer of either yes or no. However, it is not the case in the questionnaire. There are different questions in the survey where they were supposed to be close-ended, but the researcher provides option of yes, no, or do not know. The questions may be extremely confusing since they may influence the respondent to answer the question in the wrong way.
The solution to the problem is proper identification of the questions that the researcher wishes to address in the survey. He or she must identify whether the questions require the respondent to offer an explanation or give a yes or no answer (StatPac, 2013). Proper outline of the questions before the preparation of the actual questionnaire would be suitable in eliminating confusion for open and close-ended questions. The researcher may also come up with unique setting that will allow him or her set questions depending on their type. The open-ended questions should be separated from the close-ended questions to ensure no confusion exists between them (StatPac, 2014).
In addition, there is a problem on the responses options. It is not clear how the researcher wants the respondent to select answers from a wide range of options. At some point, the researcher provides six response options. The move to use a wide range of questions is not adequate to influence the right answer. In such a case, the respondent is likely to give an answer that best suits the research and not the reality according to him or her. Therefore, it will be extremely hard to define the most genuine responses to a questionnaire (SheffieldHallamUniversity, 2013).
It will be easy to solve the problem if necessary steps are undertaken. If the researcher must provide the response options, he or she must do it in a professional way. The options must be of exclusive details and to the point. He or she must develop responses that will easily connect to the problem that the respondent may be experiencing regarding the research. The response options must remain at their minimum, but they must relay reliability and proper coverage of the necessary details for the research. The responses should be outright and direct to the question. The researcher must avoid many responses that may contradict. Clear emphasis on the uniqueness of the responses should remain the goal of every research who wishes to use survey questionnaires as the main research tools (Rockville, 2014).
There is also a problem on repetitive questions in the questionnaire. It would be wise to be considerate of the negative effects of asking one questions for more than once. For example, a researcher in this questionnaire uses questions E3, E3A, and E4, which are similar. Close look at the questions indicates that the questions were addressing the same problem or issue but in a different form. The problem is likely to affect the response since the respondents may find it tedious to respond to same questions in a different way (How to formulate a good research question, 2014). To the researcher, the responses would also be negatively effective.
However, it would be wise to consider necessary moves that would eliminate the problem. The first consideration or solution is to ensure thorough analysis of the questions before the real research takes place. The researcher will acquire necessary exposure that will assist him or her in developing a question that will summarize some of the questions that seem repetitive. In addition, proper choice of words in the survey questionnaire would assist in developing unique questions that may not confuse the respondent as contradicting if used in different questions (Healy, 2013). The move will be of exclusive assistance in eliminating confusion for similar questions in a research survey Developing a (Research Question, 2013).
Some questions in the survey questionnaire are using capitalized words. It could be the aim of the researcher to use the capitalized words to emphasize on the research questions. However, the move may not go well with the respondent. In communication, capitalized words may appear as exclamations where the researcher may seem to be shouting at the respondent. That would influence the response of such a respondent in the survey (Choose a Sample Survey Today, 2014). As a result, the respondent is likely to give the wrong response of avoiding the question.
It is not extremely challenging to solve such a problem as it is in this survey questionnaire. The researcher uses capitalized words in various unnecessary instances. In such a case, the researcher must identify the most reliable words to use sooth the respondent to give the appropriate answer. As a solution to the problem, the capitalized words must be replaced with a lower case (Choose a Sample Survey Today, 2014). The move will attract more respondents as they seek to understand the research problem.
The researcher also makes a mistake in defining some of the questions. It is not right to have a number of questions depending on other questions. There is an extensive likelihood of confusion as a result of overreliance of the research questions. There is no need to define an answer to the current question from the previous question (Consumers International, 2013). Such a formula does not expose the respondent to exclusive thoughts and analysis of a problem in research.
The problem is solvable. The researcher must define a strategy that will allow the questions to be independent of each other. The move will ensure that the researcher comes up with unique outline for questions and proper analysis is done to confirm the uniqueness of every question and how it would significant in defining the necessary solution to the research problem (Consumers International, 2013).
The identified problems may highly depend on the response of the researcher. They would succeed in defining excellence of the survey questionnaire. Therefore, the provided solutions would play a critical role in ensuring the success of the survey. The problems would also prepare the researcher in coming up with another survey questionnaire in the future.
References
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Sincero, S. M. (2013). Surveys and Questionnaires - Guide. Surveys and questionnaires. Retrieved October 28, 2014, from https://explorable.com/surveys-and-questionnaires
Penwarden, R. (2013, August 7). Comparing Closed-Ended and Open-Ended Questions - FluidSurveys.FluidSurveys. Retrieved October 28, 2014, from http://fluidsurveys.com/university/comparing-closed-ended-and-open-ended-questions/
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SheffieldHallamUniversity. (2013). Guide to undergraduate dissertations in the social sciences. Formulating the research question. Retrieved October 28, 2014, from http://www.socscidiss.bham.ac.uk/research-question.html
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