Mistakes You Should Avoid in Writing the Dissertation Questionnaire
Are you a research student who wants to know how to write a dissertation questionnaire? Then you will find this blog interesting. A dissertation questionnaire is a fundamental aspect of your study which aids you in gathering data from your contributors.
Thus, it should encompass all parts of your thesis statement. But crafting a good one is a challenging task. If you are a student who is finding it difficult to create a dissertation questionnaire, we are here to help you. As an academic writing service provider, we understand the issues of students like you and the fewer resources present on the subject.
Therefore, we have compiled this piece to assist students in preparing a top-quality questionnaire. We will discuss some mistakes you should not commit while writing your questionnaire.
Apart from that, if you need to write a proposal for your research work, check out our dissertation proposal sample. If you like the work, avail of our help to write one for you.
What is A Dissertation Questionnaire?
Researchers create a survey to collect information for their research before they start writing their dissertations. It may involve both open-ended and close-ended questions. Dissertation questionnaires are of two types, which include structured and unstructured questionnaires.
You should try to write a questionnaire with these traits:
- Keep it consistent
- Keep it investigative
- Add queries in order
Mistakes You Should Avoid While Writing Your Dissertation Questionnaire
Spending Less Time On Designing The Questionnaire
You should dedicate a significant amount of time to writing your questionnaire, as it is one of the most important parts of your dissertation. Begin with brainstorming all the queries you wish to add to your study and then think if any extra questions are required depending on the time restrictions or other aspects.
Bear in mind that a few questions could be difficult to respond to for the participants, or other researchers might not have asked them such questions. They ensure that your queries are comprehensible and answerable so that people don't get confused while replying to them.
Not Including Participants’ Background
You should take into account the various backgrounds of participants while crafting a questionnaire. It will allow you to pick nicer words for queries and make them more comprehensible for readers.
Avoid Asking The Same Questions to Everyone
The dissertation questionnaire must be created to be different for each contributor. Asking the same questions to all of them would not offer you any valuable data.
Add A Few Questions
You can include up to 20 questions in your work. They should be related and fundamental to your research. More than 20 questions may be tough for contributors to respond to.
Exercise Caution Regarding Double-Barreled Questions
Double-barreled questions have two aspects, but the participant only replies to one.
One of the dissertation questionnaire examples for this type includes: “I love music since it enables me to showcase myself and my feelings.”
This sentence should be articulated as: “I love music since it enables me to showcase myself and feel emotions.”
Here, both aspects should be responded to directly by the participant with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ replies so they don't have to consider what they must utter next.
Using Words Such As ‘Always’, ‘Never’
We recommend not using words such as ‘sometimes,’ ‘never,’ ‘always,’ etc, because it may make your results vague. It may also make it hard for participants to answer precisely and honestly. Particularly if they don’t possess any prior information regarding the topic under discussion or if they are beginners in your research field.
Avoiding Writing A Succinct, Clear Questionnaire
A nice questionnaire should be brief and understandable. Exercise caution regarding double-barreled queries. If you don't know how to design a questionnaire, ask your professor. They would tell you the suitable questions for your research and may direct you perfectly.
Don't Use Double Negatives
These are wrong grammatical developments that construct vagueness in sentences. For instance, “I don't understand anything regarding this subject” means you understand something about this topic.
Therefore, vagueness and uncertainty in your study’s outcomes develop if you employ double negatives.
Avoiding Providing Ample Time For Participants To Respond To The Questions
You should provide your respondents with sufficient time to reply to all queries since they may take time to consider each before they answer.
Plus, if a respondent begins replying immediately without considering the question with care, then they potentially don't comprehend the precise question.
Employment of Slangs
They are casual words utilised by youngsters or individuals from various cultures to speak about something effortlessly without using the right spelling or grammar. Slang words can seem amusing and cute when written.
However, your participants or readers wouldn't be able to interpret your study’s outcomes due to incorrect use and understanding. Thus, steer clear of using slang if you wish to achieve effective findings out of your study.
Not Offering Enough Guidelines For Completing The Questionnaire
The guidelines should be concise and accurate so that participants can effortlessly comprehend them. Plus, offering instances of potential responses is recommended to guarantee that participants reply to your queries accurately. You can check out dissertation survey examples to see how to make guidelines.
Not Having A Privacy Statement
In many instances, you will need to show a privacy statement that tells participants how you use their data and how they can back off from contributing to your survey if they wish to do so.
How to Write A Good Dissertation Questionnaire?
- Consider the target participants before writing it. Research their whereabouts, age, qualifications, interests, etc.
- Add your survey questions in a sequence in your questionnaire with a set structure.
- Adhere to a natural flow and rational conservation when creating the queries.
- Your writing should keep the readers hooked throughout the survey.
- Keep your work comprehensible and readable for the respondents.
- We suggest you add a ‘DON'T KNOW' option in all queries so that the participants can tick that box if they don't know the correct answer to a specific question.
- There should be some blank space in the survey so that the participants can write their responses in case they do not understand a few significant elements of your query (only for online or printed surveys).
- Collect information in several ways. The queries should be compelling enough to hook the audience and stop them from leaving your survey.
Bottom Line
Your dissertation questionnaire is an essential element of any research work or scientific methodology, thus, it must be crafted meticulously. Make sure to write using correct grammar and syntax while preparing one. Plus, add unbiased survey queries. It is crucial to avoid mistakes made by freshers and the mental blocks people face when starting a new kind of activity.
We have stated all the common mistakes that most scholars make while preparing surveys for their research. Our experts have carefully curated them as they have been in the industry for quite some time. They have gone through and helped students complete numerous surveys for research papers as part of our dissertation writing service UK.
Make sure you don't add biased or ambiguous queries, technical language or unclear guidelines in your dissertation questionnaire, as it will provide you with untrustworthy information.
