Survey

Survey research enables you to collect data via questionnaires or interviews, from a large number of respondents (who answer questionnaires) or interviewees (who you interview). The informants are selected through random sampling. Please note that you need to be aware that the random sampling of respondents / interviewees should represent the community in the context of the phenomena because the key feature of survey research is to produce generalisations relevant to the whole community.

The starting point of your strategy is therefore, the aim to explore the generality, occurrence, interaction or distribution of phenomena within a large population. You will generalise the results to apply to the whole community. Quantitative research is the usual basis of survey studies.  You can, however, use a variety of both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis, depending on the questionnaire and interview methods.

Read more on survey from the links below:

Trochim, William M., 2006. Survey Research. Research Methods Knowledge Base, 2nd Edition.

Barribeau, Paul, Butler, Bonnie, Corney, Jeff, Doney, Megan, Gault, Jennifer, Gordon, Jane, Fetzer, Randy, Klein, Allyson, Ackerson Rogers, Cathy, Stein, Irene F., Steiner, Carroll, Urschel, Heather, Waggoner, Theresa and Palmquist, Mike, 2005. Survey Research. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University Department of English.

Garson, G. David. Survey Research. Quantitative Research in Public Administration. North Carolina State University.

Shuttleworth, Martyn, 2008. Survey Research Design. Experiment Resources.