The Practice of Social Research

Chapter Nine.  Survey Research


SELF-ADMINISTERED QUESTIONNAIRES
    Mail Distribution and Return
    Monitoring Returns
    Follow-up Mailings
    Acceptable Response Rates
    A Case Study

    There are several ways of administering a survey, and the first one we'll examine is the self-administered questionnaire.  As the name suggests, respondents are given questionnaires and asked to complete them on their own.

    Sometimes questionnaires are handed out in a group setting, often they are sent through the mails.  Less often, they are delivered to respondents by researchers.

    In this section, we'll examine a number of logisitcal concerns that go into a successful survey.  We'll look at some ways of increasing the response rate--the percentage who return the questionnaires--and we'll consider some guidelines to what constitutes a successful or unsuccessful return.