Do you have a question for me?

If you are curious about a certain subject, the best way to find out some answers is to ask questions! What is the best way to do so? I will tell you… create a survey. Survey Research is very popular in the professional world as well as the academic world.

Looking at the professional world, what is going on currently that has to do with surveys? Well, lets think… it is now November, so what does this month signify?  ELECTION TIME !. Even though I am not personally into politics that much, the above website breaks down what happened during Election Day in five simple categories. The actual act of voting consists of you doing a survey. It is much more formal then a simple questionnaire, but it still follows the most of the same guidelines and this survey can truly impact everyones life so it is important to fill it out!

So what makes up a good survey? It is important to make sure you give instructions that are clear. There are always going to be some people that are not the sharpest tool in the shed, and when it comes to either circling the answer or checking it… they want to be told exactly what to do. So to avoid any headaches.. make sure you are clear with the instructions you give to your participants. The main points to think about when creating a survey are to make sure the questions are kept neutral. When giving options as the answers, it is important to make sure there are enough options. Also just to keep things appropriate for target respondents.

For college students it is that dreaded time of the year where we have to start thinking ahead and registering for classes for next semester. What is something that can help us get through this tedious process? Surveys by our fellow students!  The Qu review is a website that Quinnipiac students can use to rate their professors. There are various sites that universities can use but I wanted to show this one, because I had this teacher and I thought the way that that the evaluation is displayed shows an accurate example of a survey. It gives the scale of numbers for each column to rank, and at the end gives room for general comments.

Something to think about is the effects that can come out of filling out a simple survey....

The next time you are emailed, called, or handed a survey…. Will you fill it out?!