UNIT 2

Technical Communication-
Questionnaires(survey)
BY THE END OF THIS UNIT, YOU WILL…

- DEVELOP LANGUAGE TO HELP YOU WRITE A QUESTIONNAIRE (SURVEY)

- BE ABLE TO USE ONLINE SURVEY FORMS TO CREATE A SURVEY

ELAN 3225/3002 English Department- Islamic University of Madinah Academic Year 2023-24
 1-What is the best way to collect information from a large number of people?
2-Would you prefer to complete a questionnaire online, in writing,
or in person?
3- Have you ever completed a questionnaire? What was it about?

** We ALWAYS do a survey to make conclusions about something, for example- taking

opinions about a service, or opening a new mall in a particular location etc.**
 Types of data
Quantitative data is Qualitative data is
anything that can be explaining the results of
counted or measured; it an experiment or an
refers to numerical data. It interview.
can tell you “how many,”
“how much,” or “how
often”- for example, how
many people attended last
week’s webinar?

Quantitative data is
gathered by measuring and
counting.
 Real world examples of quantitative data
• Measurements such as height, length, and weight
• Counts, such as the number of website visitors, sales, or email sign-
ups
• Calculations, such as money etc.
• Projections (trends), such as predicted temperature increase as a
percentage
Real world examples of qualitative data
• Interview transcripts or audio recordings
• The text included in an email or social media post
• Product reviews (summaries) – Amazon, booking.com etc.
• Survey options e.g. selecting whether you are satisfied,
dissatisfied, strongly agree or disagree to a particular product or
service.
 When should I use quantitative or/and
qualitative data?
• The following criteria can be used
to determine whether to go with
qualitative data, quantitative data,
or a mixed methods approach to
collecting data for your project.
• Do you want to understand
something, such as experience, or
opinions? Use qualitative data.
• Do you want to confirm or test
something, such as a theory or
hypothesis (H0, H1…)? Use
quantitative data.
• For your report, you may benefit
from a mix of both approaches to
data collection.
Why do surveys fail to give correct results?
• Keep an objective or goal in mind – what are you trying to find out?

• How will this information be useful for your report?

• The questions that you make should help you to get proper answers.
First, clearly define your survey objectives
before writing your questions
• Unfortunately many students skip this stage and end up with un-
focused surveys that produce data of limited use.
• Questions for thought:
1. What exactly are you trying to find out?
2. Where will you do the survey?
3. What decisions do you need to make as a result of the survey?
4. What are the key points you need to find out or measure?
5. If you want to use this survey for your report, will it make the
report more meaningful?
 Recommended (but not necessary)
• It is far easier to change your survey content to make your reports
more meaningful during the ‘testing’ phase than attempting to make
changes after the ‘real’ survey is live. Especially when using electronic
tools like Google forms, changing anything during a live survey gives
inaccurate data and graphs.

• Before you send your survey, show it to your teacher for feedback.
Question format guidelines
1) Start with broad, general questions and go to specific and harder
ones.
Be very specific and clear.
Be culturally-sensitive.

Example:
• General: Do you like ice-cream?
• Specific: Do you like Baskin Robbins chocolate ice-cream?
Question format guidelines
2) Each question should only focus on one topic. It shouldn’t evaluate
more than one thing yet allow for a single response. Such questions are
called double-barrel.
Double-barrel: How satisfied are you with your work environment and
salary benefits?
The participant will be confused with 2 different questions and only a
single response.
Single and separate:
• How satisfied are you with your work environment?
• How satisfied are you with your salary benefits?
Question format guidelines
3) Avoid two-part or complex questions which can be hard to interpret, as
can double negatives.
Double negatives: Do you agree or disagree that mobile phone interface
designers should never not know how to code?
This is really confusing.
Simple: Mobile interface designers should know how to code.

4) Avoid personal bias which doesn’t give a choice.

• Biased: We think that the bus service to the university is very helpful. How
helpful do you think it is?
• Unbiased: What do you think about the bus service to the university?
Question format guidelines
5) When making closed questions, provide all answer choices.
Example:
• Extremely important
• Very important
• Moderately important This gives participants all choices
• Slightly important
• Not at all important
• Not applicable
Question format guidelines
6) Yes/no and true/false questions can produce less helpful data because
they don’t provide context and are not specific.

Yes/No: Do you use the mobile app? (doesn’t give much data)
• Always
• Very Often These give all the choices and
• Sometimes possibilities in a balanced and clear
• Rarely way
• Never

It’s better to use a frequency adverbs: How often do you use the mobile
app?
 BRUSO – criterion for making survey questions
Criterion Poor Effective
B—Brief “Do you think solar energy might preserve
the environment more than regular energy
sources in Madinah?”

R—Relevant “What is your age?”

U—Unambiguous “Do you like Jarir bookstore?”

S—Specific “Are you familiar with solar energy?”

O—Objective “Are the Language Hub hours sufficient?”

Task 2: Now write effective questions for each of the poor responses.
Go to: Google forms
https://www.google.com/forms/about
and click the ‘personal’ option.
Click on the ‘Blank’ form
Choose a name for your form.
Think of questions that you can ask your classmates.

Develop the survey

that you can send to
your friends.
Choose the MCQ option.
Send your survey to your friends then let google analyse
your data.
Viewing a summary of responses as charts and graphs
You will see one of the following 3 graphs:
• Vertical Bar graphs showing the frequency of responses to linear scale, multiple choice
grid and checkbox grid type questions.
• Pie charts showing percentages of responses to Multiple Choice and dropdown questions.
• Horizontal bar graphs showing the frequency of responses to checkbox questions.
References
Adams, K. and Zimmerman, C., 2014. Inside Writing 3. New York: Oxford University Press.

Soars, L. and Soars, J., 2019. HEADWAY. [Place of publication not identified]: Oxford University
Press.

Brown, J. (n.d.). The Essential Guide to Writing Effective Survey Questions | UX Booth. [online]
https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/the-essential-guide-to-writing-effective-survey-questions/. Available at:
https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/the-essential-guide-to-writing-effective-survey-questions/.

Technical English Report Writing