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CHAPTER 8
Designing Data Collection Forms
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To gain an overview of the questionnaire design process
To learn the four “do’s” of question wording
To learn the four “don’ts” of question wording
To understand the basics of questionnaire organization
To understand the advantages of computer-assisted questionnaire design software
To learn how to precode questionnaires
To know what to consider to properly pretest a questionnaire
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Types of Data Collection Forms
Survey Questionnaires and Observation Forms
The Functions of a Questionnaire
The Questionnaire Design Process
Developing Questions
Four “Do’s” of Question Wording
The Question Should Focus on One Topic
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The Question Should Be Brief
The Question Should Be a Grammatically Simple Sentence If Possible
The Question Should Be Crystal Clear
Four “Don’ts” of Question Wording
Do Not “Lead” the Respondent to a Particular Answer
Do Not Have “Loaded” Wording or Phrasing
Do Not Use a “Double-Barreled” Question
Do Not Use Words to Overstate the Condition
Questionnaire Organization
The Introduction
Question Flow
Computer-Assisted Questionnaire Design
Questionnaire Creation
Data Collection and Creation of Data Files
Data Analysis and Graphs
Coding the Questionnaire
Performing the Pretest of the Questionnaire
KEY TERMS
Anonymity
Classification questions
Computer-assisted questionnaire design
Confidentiality
Pretest
Question bias
Question development
Question evaluation
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Cover letter
Disguised survey
Double-barreled question
Face validity
Incentives
Leading question
Loaded question
Overstated question
Question flow
Questionnaire
Questionnaire design
Questionnaire organization
Screening questions
Skip question
Transitions
Undisguised survey
Warm-up questions
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
1. Examples of good (and bad) questionnaires are helpful teaching aids because students
are generally unfamiliar with questionnaires. So, examining actual questionnaires or
parts of questionnaires is a useful way for students to become familiar with this
critical marketing research tool. Create multimedia presentation files, overhead
transparencies, or make copies of questionnaires that you have developed, or ones
developed by students in previous classes and go over the opening comments, format,
question flow, response scales, and logic.
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2. Contrasting a telephone questionnaire to one that is self-administered will emphasize how
telephone administration constrains the choice of scales and further requires the interviewer
to describe the scale to the respondent. With self-administered questionnaires, the format and
instructions are facilitated by the visual context. Divide the class into two teams and have one
team design a telephone questionnaire, while the other designs a mail questionnaire. The
topic might be to determine the satisfaction level of car buyers with the automobile’s style,
handling, fuel efficiency, and passenger compartment roominess. The need to tailor the
questions to the form of data collection can be emphasized by comparing the two
questionnaires.
3. Invariably, some students will misspell “questionnaire” by omitting one of the n’s. Write
“questionnnnnnnnaire” on the chalk board, or on a presentation slide to drive the point home.
4. The four do’s and four do not’s described in the chapter may not be easy for students to
remember. A divide-and-conquer strategy is to assign each student one “do” or a “do not”
with instructions to formulate a question that illustrates each the point quite well. Students
can share the questions they formulate in class. You might have a contest by class vote as to
which one is the best (easiest to relate to, or remember) for each of the eight items. Prepare a
list of the winners for distribution the next time you teach the class.
5. Questionnaire design is a learned skill, and, unfortunately, the learning is gradual because
each questionnaire design problem is unique. The more questionnaire design practice that
instructors demand of their students, the better. Case 8.2 requires students to design a
questionnaire.
6. Cover letters are becoming increasing personalized and sophisticated. Some instructors
maintain a file folder of cover letters that are good examples and share them with students.
7. Computer-assisted questionnaire design programs are advancing rapidly, and there are a
number of computer-assisted questionnaire design programs on the market. Many of these
companies have websites, and some allow downloading of evaluation copies of their
products. One approach is to have students, or student teams review and demonstrate
different computer-assisted questionnaire design software.
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