Things You Should Know About a Questionnaire: Types, Pros and Cons

The questionnaire is a set of some systemised questions. A questionnaire is a research tool that helps in getting information from the audience. In simple words, you can take it as a written interview. For a questionnaire, you can approach the targeted audience through different means. For example, it can be online, person-to-person, or through a call. Here you have to add different types of questions that fulfil your demand. The only purpose of questionnaires is to collect relevant data from people. There are many other means of data collection. These include interviews, surveys, and related experiments.

But data collection through questionnaires is the most common example. The main reason behind its popularity is its cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. Here it doesn’t matter whether the researcher is collecting all data by himself or not. You can share your questionnaire, and gather appropriate data. You have to be very clear about data collection and its analysis.

The questionnaire is a data collection technique. It does not have a concern with the analysis of data. Whenever you conduct any survey, there must be a questionnaire involved. It plays an important role in the aspect of survey based researches. A questionnaire helps in generating a bundle of ideas for the specific issue. You can identify different beliefs of people for a single concern. But you cannot take a questionnaire as a survey. Questionnaire is a chunk of the survey. You have to be very clear about the differences between these two. In a survey, you collect data by using a questionnaire. Then you analyse that data and get results out of it. These steps of analysis and results make it different from the questionnaire.

Types of Questionnaires

When you decide to go for the questionnaire, or data collection technique, it’s very important to know about its types. The questionnaire has two main types. These are highlighted as follows;

1. Descriptive Questionnaire

According to the dissertation writing services firm, when the researcher is interested in having computable data, it comes under the category of a descriptive questionnaire. Here, the researcher uses that computable data and addresses the subject of his research. With the help of a descriptive questionnaire, you can easily identify interests of the target population. The main purpose of this type of questionnaire is to check the number of participants. It also identifies how many of them have the same interest. For a descriptive questionnaire, you can take the example of a voter questionnaire. It means that when you design a questionnaire, it comes under the category of a descriptive one. This relates to it being data for checking how many people voted.

2. Analytical Questionnaire

In case you develop a relationship between two, or more concepts, then an analytical questionnaire is preferable. Here you can take any specific concept and start working on it. You have to check its relationship with the other variables. Then the analytical questionnaire helps you in asking for the best information from your audience. With the help of analytical data, you can exactly find the reason behind any happening. In the designing of hypotheses, you have to go for an analytical questionnaire too. For example, you want to see the effects of social media on everyone’s life. Analytical data is the best in this context.

Types of Questions in a Questionnaire

In both categories of the question, you have to deal with the categories of questions. The types of questions also vary from research to research. Let’s discuss these types one by one;

1. Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions help in getting in-depth information out of the audience. In this type, you let people share their personal opinions openly. This type of question records a huge amount of data. The reason behind more data is that you don’t have any limitations for the opinions. It also becomes hard to record data because in some cases. But here you can avoid the biases. Open-ended questions are mostly asked in interviews. You can also know about the beliefs of people, and their family relations. You can collect suggestions of people through open-ended questions. Open-ended questions can also be termed as unstructured questions.

2. Close-Ended Questions

The second type of question is that of close-ended. Such types of questions are structured. Here you provide options to the respondents. He/she has to select any one relevant option per question. In the case of quantitative research, you have to go for close-ended questions.

Pros of a Questionnaire

Here are some pros of using the internet. These are highlighted as follows;

1. Cost-Effective and Quick

Data collection through the internet is the most cost-effective one. You don’t need to invest in the surveyors. You don’t have to hire anyone for an interview either. Can you also collect a huge number of responses within a short period? All these factors make the questionnaire cost-effective. It does not matter what category of the questionnaire you are using. This is because both of them are cost-effective. As you can go for online data collection in this type, more responses can be generated quickly. Here the only dependency is your social circle.

2. Analysis, and Visualisation

Questionnaires come under the category of quantitative research. Here it becomes very easy to analyse, and visualise the data. You don’t need to know about the background study. Data collected from the questionnaire is easy to visualise too. It means that you can easily get results out of it.

3. Different Aspects of Research

The best part of using questions as data collection techniques is the coverage of different aspects. It is up to you regarding how many questions you want to add. If your questions have a scale, you can add the scale of your choice.

Cons of a Questionnaire

1. Dishonest Answers

A very common disadvantage of any questionnaire is the dishonesty of respondents. This may be possible due to privacy concerns. They might also do this to simply hide their identification. As a result, you have to deal with faulty, or inaccurate data.

2. Skipped Questions

Most of the time, respondents skip questions. In online, you can handle this issue by editing the requirement set. But in the case of a hard form, you have to face this issue indefinitely.

3. Accessibility Issues

Accessibility issues increase the factor of risk. You have to be careful about your target audience. You have to see if impaired people are suitable for the research or not. Then you have to make changes accordingly. You must ensure the availability of accessibility options for this aspect.