Conducting Surveys: A Step-by-step Guide to Getting the Information You Need [Paperback]

A nuts–and–bolts guide to conducting your own professional–quality surveys without paying professional fees. How can you gauge public support for a cause or test the market for a product or service? What are the best methods for validating opinions for use in a paper or dissertation? A well–documented survey is the answer. But what if you don′t have thousands of dollars to commission one? No problem. How to Conduct Your Own Survey gives you everything you need to do it yourself! Without any prior training, you can learn expert techniques for conducting accurate, low–cost surveys. In step–by–step, down–to–earth language, Priscilla Salant and Don A. Dillman give you the tools you need to:
∗ Determine which type of survey is best for you
∗ Estimate the cost of your survey
∗ Conduct mail, telephone, and face–to–face surveys
∗ Draw accurate samples
∗ Write effective questionnaires
∗ Compile and report results
∗ Avoid common survey errors
∗ Find reliable outside assistance
∗ And much more

A nuts–and–bolts guide to conducting your own professional–quality surveys without paying professional fees. How can you gauge public support for a cause or test the market for a product or service? What are the best methods for validating opinions for use in a paper or dissertation? A well–documented survey is the answer. But what if you don’t have thousands of dollars to commission one? No problem. How to Conduct Your Own Survey gives you everything you need to do it yourself! Without any prior training, you can learn expert techniques for conducting accurate, low–cost surveys. In step–by–step, down–to–earth language, Priscilla Salant and Don A. Dillman give you the tools you need to:

• Determine which type of survey is best for you
• Estimate the cost of your survey
• Conduct mail, telephone, and face–to–face surveys
• Draw accurate samples
• Write effective questionnaires
• Compile and report results
• Avoid common survey errors
• Find reliable outside assistance
• And much more

PRISCILLA SALANT, M.A., is an Associate in Research at Washington State University. She provides research assistance to public and private nonprofit organizations and is the author of A Community Researcher′s Guide to Rural Data. DON A. DILLMAN, Ph.D., is a Senior Survey Methodologist at the U.S. Bureau of the Census and Director of the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center at Washington State University. He is the author of the professional book, Mail and Telephone Surveys, also available from Wiley.