Wednesday 22 March 2006

Designing Survey Questions

We all know that the way you ask a question will have effect on the response you will get. Hence it is very important to pay special attention to the way questions are worded when designing any evaluation or survey instrument.

Here is a good example of how to ask questions which people will be hard to say "yes" to. [Example draws from comment about polling on copyright on music as a contrast to how Music Industries word their polling questions. More on the link above.]

Do you agree that you should have to get the permission of the photographer every time, now and in the future, that you wish to use your own family portrait?


Of the following, which do you feel would be the best use of $1,000,000 in educational tax dollars in your province or territory:
• hiring more teachers,
• improving the physical conditions in schools,
• providing additional assistance for special needs students,
• providing additional assistance for gifted students,
• buying more library books,
• improving school lunches, or
• paying copyright tariffs to the collective agency Access Copyright?

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