Designing Questionnaire for the Information Required by a Study

Abstract

In this paper, the writer shares his experience and knowledge gained from the experience of preparing for data collection for a master’s thesis in Sociology at Xavier University. Discussion includes the following: how the student arrived at the decision to construct his own questionnaire as the main instrument of data gathering;; how the questionnaire was planned, designed, and organized; the order with which these questions appeared in the questionnaire; how each question was worded, formulated and/or discriminated, etc. This paper also highlights the challenges of research instrument design even under the mentorship of a highly esteemed scholar like the world renowned late Francis C. Madigan, S. J. Despite the challenges in the task of design and construction, the process is a necessary and worthwhile experience.