STRUCTURED METHODS: INTERVIEWS, QUESTIONNAIRES …

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STRUCTURED methods : INTERVIEWS, QUESTIONNAIRES AND OBSERVATIONConstantinos N. Phellas, Alice Bloch and Clive Seale11Chapter ContentsInterviews or self-completion QUESTIONNAIRES ? 182Types of interview 183 Face-to-face interviews 183 Telephone interviews 183Self-completed QUESTIONNAIRES 184Designing studies using STRUCTURED interviews and QUESTIONNAIRES 185 Determining the information to be sought 185 Deciding how to administer the questionnaire or interview 186 Postal surveys 186 Internet-based methods 188Constructing an interview schedule or questionnaire 192 Keep it short 192 Introduction or welcome message 192 Elements of an effective cover letter 193 Deciding the order of questions 193 Include all potential answer choices 19311-Seale-4312-CH-11-Part 18122/11/2011 4:03:25 PMDOING RESEARCH182Learning how to design and use STRUCTURED interviews, QUESTIONNAIRES and observation instruments is an important skill for research-ers.

Asking the questions in the same order is called scheduling. Interviews, however, can be non-scheduled, though still partly standardised. This is some-times called a semi-structured interview. Here, the interviewer works from a list of topics that need to be covered with each respondent, but the order and exact wording of questions is not ...

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