Sociology 302 Social Research Methods Prof. J. Badagliacco

Written Assignment 5: Questionnaire

This assignment is worth 50 points toward your overall grade, and is due on or before Nov. 29. Remember that the quality of written expression is very important to research, and how you say something as well as what you say is important. Reminder: hand in your complete folder that includes all previous assignments.

For this assignment, you will write and otherwise produce a self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) on your research topic. (Recall that a SAQ is one that a respondent can answer for her/himself, i.e., no one else will administer it.) Draw upon all that you have learned in class and read, and I expect that you will have read and used Babbie for this assignment.

1. You must include all the questions that you think should be asked of your sample population in order to properly cover your subject. This, of course, will include your dependent variables and independent variables. There is no specified length for your questionnaire. It should be as long as is necessary to cover your topic, but no longer that you think your subjects will be willing to answer. At the minimum, you should have 5 questions: your dependent variable, and 4 independent variables. It is not necessary to make your questionnaire very long.

2. Be sure to include a consent form. You have seen such forms, so you should be able to construct one without any difficulty.

3. Carefully construct your questionnaire; presentation is very important and will be part of your grade. The SAQ should be expertly done and well produced. It should be nicely word processed, clear, well worded, with no grammatical or spelling errors, and neatly and efficiently formatted. Ask yourself, "How would you respond if you saw it?"

4. Write a brief paper about your questionnaire. For each question, justify why you included this question. Also justify the format and formulation of the question (i.e., what words you used, the categories you choose, and how they are laid out.) How is the question related to your concept? What did you expect to learn from the question? What were alternative ways of asking the question that you decided against? Why did you discard the alternatives? Discuss your logic in ordering the questions as you did. Explain how you have handled both threatening and non-threatening questions; identify which question you considered sensitive, and why.

Note: There are, then, three parts to this paper: a) the questionnaire itself – it should be complete, as if you were ready to give it to someone to fill out; b) a consent form; c) the paper justifying your questions, etc. Obviously parts could be of varying lengths depending on your topic and the completeness of your work.