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In self-completion
questionnaires, it is important to consider both the quality of layout, and
the length of the questionnaire. If the questionnaire is poor
in layout, or very lengthy, then the respondent will find it more
difficult to complete, may lose interest and may skip
questions or fail to complete the questionnaire at all.
The main elements
in getting a good response to a self-completion questionnaire
are as follows:
- Subject matter – an
interesting range of topics gets better response rates.
- Style and layout of the
questionnaire – good formatting gives better response rates
generally
- Question ordering – keep more
difficult or personal questions until later; start with
topics that interest the respondent
- Question style – avoid too
detailed questions, or questions that require too much
recall. Long lists tend to be boring to respondents
- Questionnaire length – this
is important, but other factors are probably more important.
The task of the questionnaire
designer is to get the right balance for the respondent. A useful illustrative
example is a survey of hospital patients which was conducted by
postal self-completion questionnaire sent to the home addresses
of people who had been in hospital (for at least one night) a
few weeks previously. Clearly this is a subject that is of
considerable interest to the respondent. The survey used a
questionnaire which was over 40 pages long, but was well
designed – and
received response rates of 70-80%.
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