Critical thinking and problem solvingStep five - order

Generally, the questions at the start of a questionnaire should be the easiest to answer. If respondents find the first question difficult to understand, unclear or embarrassing, they may not wish to continue further. Easy opening questions should increase the likelihood of them completing the whole questionnaire.

Make sure that questions flow well, so put them in an order that makes sense. Respondents can find it confusing when questions jump from topic to topic or when they have to revisit a topic that has already been mentioned.

Example

If a questionnaire has been designed to investigate healthy lifestyles, it should start with a set of questions about healthy eating, followed by the next set of questions about exercise. Respondents might get confused if asked further food-based questions, as this would not be a logical sequence of questions.

Respondents like questionnaires that have different types of questions so that they do not become repetitive. Different types of questions can include:

• open questions that give respondents freedom to answer as they wish
• closed questions like yes/no questions
• questions that have options such as strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree

Researchers should also make sure that the questionnaires are not too long as respondents may get bored and not complete the questionnaire.

Step six - pilot

A pilot is a pre-test of the questionnaire, which involves asking just a few people, eg friends and family, to answer the questions.

Pilots are used to check:

• if the questions are worded clearly
• if the questions give the information required
• that everyone understands the questions
• if the questions are in the right order
• if any more questions are needed
• if respondents understand the instructions about how to complete the questionnaire

A pilot is very important, as writing well-worded questions that will be clear to the respondents can be tricky. So, until a questionnaire is tested, the researcher will not know if the questionnaire is going to give them the results that they are after.

Step seven - finalise

The final step is to prepare the final version based on the feedback from the pilot and to make sure it is free of spelling mistakes, incorrect punctuation and grammatical errors.