Introduction

A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions or

other types of prompts that aims to collect information from a respondent. A
research questionnaire is typically a mix of close-ended questions and open-ended
questions.
Open-ended, long form questions offer the respondent the ability to elaborate on
their thoughts. Research questionnaires were developed in 1838 by the Statistical
Society of London.
A questionnaire enables quantitative data to be collected in a standardized way so
that the data are internally consistent and coherent for analysis. Questionnaires
should always have a definite purpose that is related to the objectives
of the research, and it needs to be clear from the outset how the findings will be
used.
A questionnaire is used in case resources are limited as a questionnaire can be
quite inexpensive to design and administer and time is an important resource which
a questionnaire consumes to its maximum extent, protection of the privacy of the
participants as participants will respond honestly only if their identity is hidden
and confidentiality is maintained, and corroborating with other findings as
questionnaires can be useful confirmation tools when corroborated with other
studies that have resources to pursue other data collection strategies.
The guidelines for constructing quistionnaire
I). quistionnaire must have be those that help to get information to solve the
research problems
ii). measurement level of variables to be collected must be kept in mind to ensure
that questions ask for measurable responses
III). The rough draft of a questionnaire must be scrutinized deeply to find any
defects for amendment
iv). A pilot study must be undertaken to pretest the questionnaire which may be
amended in the light of pretesting results.
V). Questions must be straight forward so that the respondents may not feel any
difficult in answering them.According to Kumar, R. (2011). Research methodology

Types of Questionnaire
There are roughly two types of questionnaires, structured and unstructured. A
mixture of these both is the quasi structured questionnaire that is used mostly in
social science research.
Structured questionnaires; Is a document that consists of a set of standardized
questions with a fixed scheme, which specifies the exact wording and order of the
questions, for gathering information from respondents. Structured questionnaire is
the primary measuring instrument in survey research. The use of structured
questionnaire has a close relationship with quantitative analysis; include pre-
coded questions with well-defined skipping patterns to follow the sequence of
questions. Most of the quantitative data collection operations use structured
questionnaires. Fewer discrepancies, easy to administer consistency in answers and
easy for the data management are advantages of such structured questionnaires.
Unstructured questionnaires; are used in qualitative
research and most predominantly, in face-to-face interviews, as conversation is
able to flow more naturally between the researcher and the respondent. However,
they can be used in telephone interviews and are sometimes referred to as open-
ended questions. include open-ended and vague opinion-type questions. Maybe
questions are not in the format of interrogative sentences and the moderator or the
enumerator has to elaborate the sense of the question. Focus group discussions use
such a questionnaire.
Not all questions are easily pre-coded with almost possible alternatives to
answers. Given answer alternatives of some questions in the standard questionnaires
are left as others (please specify). A common and pragmatic practice is that most
of the questions are structured, however, it is comfortable to have some
unstructured questions whose answers are not feasible to enumerate completely. Such
a type of questionnaire is called a quasi-structured questionnaire
The applicability of questionnaire.
Questionnaires are commonly used in
market research. Due to this questionnaire can be used to make an assessment for a
certain issues concerned about a market of a certain products which can be produced
and to services the customers and meet their needs or requirements. For example, a
company may ask for feedback about a recent customer service experience,
Social and health sciences. Psychology researchers may investigate health risk
perceptions using questionnaires, in order to collect some information which can
help to get the solution of the problems which occured.
Education system. Such to know the performance of the students and how their
teachers treat them in one way or another. For example to know why students failure
in academic issues, and what the reasons behind made this situation to take place.

The following are the advantages of questionnaire

Questionnaires are practical. We say questionnaire are practical in a way of
collecting data because a person can conduct its research by facing directly to a
certain group of people or customer through face to face interview and due to that
it will be easy for a researcher or surveyor to choose questions, ways and format
of asking those questions to a certain targeted group or customer either open ended
questions or multiple choice questions. Therefore through this way of collecting
data it help a research to collect a large number of data in different ways such as
customer feedback.
Questionnaires are not expensive or inexpensive. Here a researcher or person
himself can be able to collect or to gather quickly massive amount of data or
information to the intended group of people through a way of face to face
interviews in short period of time without using a large amount of cost in hiring
surveyors to conduct face to face interview, not only that but also questionnaire
can be placed on your website or emailed to your customer. Therefore questionnaire
it is cheap because it does not use a large amount of money in conducting survey.
Reach people quickly. Due to the wide choice of ways by a surveyor or researcher in
collecting data either through face to face interview or email or website by
putting link or through QR code it will be easy for a surveyor to reach people
quickly and to get feedback quickly to his or her respondents or customers.
Therefore questionnaire is one of the good methods in reaching people quickly and
getting feedback quickly.
Questionnaire do not have time constraints or limit. Through using online or email
questionnaire a surveyor or researcher can collect data at their own time the same
also to the respondents at their own time can complete the questionnaires by
returning feedback at any time. Therefore questionnaires it don’t have time limit,
a surveyors or researcher can collect data and asking question at any time  but
also respondents can return feedback at any time.
Questionnaires offer a quick way to get result. By using different ways in
collecting data such as face to face interviews, online and mobile tools it can
help the surveyor or researcher to get quick result of feedback  from the
respondent or customers at short time either it can be in 24 hours or less it
depend on which scale or way you’re using. Therefore due to the different ways and
scale using by a surveyor it can help him to get quick answers.
Saves time of the Researchers. The questionnaire method is the most time-saving
method when trying to collect primary data. This is because the researchers do not
need to physically conduct face to face interviews of the respondents (such as when
conducting surveys). The researchers only need to take out some time to mail the
questions. The respondents can then fill out and return the forms in due course of
time.
uires less Manpower. When conducting a survey, a lot of manpower is required
because the researcher needs to hire people to conduct face to face interviews.
This is not the case for the questionnaire method. The questionnaire method only
needs some people who can organize and interpret the collected data.
No Personal Bias. When oral interviews are conducted, it has been observed that the
respondents might sometimes be subtly led to answer according to the personal bias
of the investigator. This element of personal bias is completely eliminated by
sending questionnaires because the respondents fill out the answers on their own.
Hence such answers will be more authentic and accurate.
Data can be collected over a Large Area. Suppose you want to study the eating
habits of people living in a particular city. Asking people in person would be
impractical and it would be impossible to cover the entire population of the city.
Here, we can widen our area of investigation by simply sending questions via mail
and requesting people to respond.

The limitations of questionnaire method

Lack of Accessibility. Questionnaires are designed to reach masses. However, if
they are not designed to be compatible with all devices then some users may not be
able to access them. But also to the illiterate people may not access this program
when conducted due some reasons such as they did not read and write. So it is
difficult to reach them when the survey taker conducting the research of a certain
phenomenon.
Incorrect Feedback. One of the biggest challenges marketers face when conducting
surveys is that respondents give dishonest answers. Respondents sometimes they feel
that whatever input they are giving in the questionnaire is true and will benefit
the survey taker. But the respondents may not be aware more about what the
questions need a right answer so that to put it in order to help the researcher to
get a deeply information of a certain researched topic.
It consume time, such on preparing and designing the questions. It need more time
to structure the questions so that can be understandable to the respondents, hereby
the researcher sometimes may generate difficult questions and makes the respondents
to take more time on how to answer that questions. Then in design the questions the
researcher required to make short and clear questions in a good format, then that
will be difficult for researcher to made it so, it take more time on conducting,
preparing and designing the questions.
It is cost fully. Such it need some resources like money or funds that may lead the
process to be continued, and that funds especially used for different ways among of
them are for traveling, buying some materials like pens, pencils, package of the
papers which carry the questions but also in paying stationary cost such cost of
printing papers questions. Due to this sometimes the researcher have not enough
funds to operate all process needed to complete the research, so they suffering and
pass in difficult way when there is low money to manage the program.
Use of Complicated Language. Asking a question is easy. But how can one be sure the
respondent understood the question the way you wanted them to?. The words used in
the survey questions play an important role in ensuring the success of a
questionnaire. However, achieving the right balance can be a task, especially when
you are focused on gathering data. This may take too long time for the respondents
to understand what the questions need.
Illegibility. Illegible handwriting of the respondent sometimes creates much
difficulty for the researcher to understand the responses. Sometimes the
respondents erase and over write too much. These create many difficulties in
reading the answers. These made a researcher to get incomplete information
according to the words of respondents written by handwriting.

Recommendation
According to Bethlehem, J. (2009). In a survey, the researcher uses a questionnaire
to gather information from the respondents to answer the research questions. A
questionnaire is a very convenient way of collecting information from a large
number of people within a period of time. Hence, the design of the questionnaire is
of utmost importance to ensure accurate data is collected so that the results are
interpretable and generalisable. A bad questionnaire renders the results
uninterpretable, or worse, may lead to erroneous conclusions. A survey can come in
many forms: postal survey, telephone interviews, face to face interviews and
internet surveys. Each type of survey requires a slightly different design. A self
administered questionnaire should have very clear instructions and questions,
follow a logical order and avoid complex filtering. The respondents are more likely
to answer truthfully without prompting from an interviewer. On the other hand, in
an interviewer-administered questionnaire the questions can be more complex as they
can be clarified by the interviewers.

CONCLUSION
A questionnaire is a tool which can be used in any type of research. This article
is developed to give in-depth information about requisites like constructing a
questionnaire, pilot testing them, standardizing them and reframing the poor
questions. It is good practice to ‘pilot’ or pretest your questionnaire with a
small sample of respondents. Before using it to check people’s understanding and
ability to answer the questions, highlight.

References
Khatiwada, R. P., Pradhan, B. L. & Poudyal, N. (2015). Research Methodology. KEC
Publication, Kathmandu Nepal.
Kumar, R. (2011). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Los
Angeles: SAGE.
Walliman, Nicholas. Research Methods: The Basics. London: Routledge, 2011. Print.
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questionnaire
https://bizfluent.com/info-8419146-characteristics-good-questionnaire.html
Bethlehem, J. (2009). Applied survey methods: A statistical perspective. Hoboken,
NJ: Wiley