Worksheet 1
Conducting a survey
One of the easiest ways of finding out information about people or places is to survey or interview individuals. Geographers find a lot of their information from surveys. A survey is a series of questions related to a specific topic. It is usually in the form of a written questionnaire.
The advantage of using a survey as a geographical tool is that you can find out exactly what you need to know by asking individuals a series of questions. Surveys should be reasonably short and the questions should be clear and easy to understand. People do not want to spend too long answering questions. One method used to limit the amount of time a survey may take to complete is to categorise responses as shown in [the following SAMPLE SURVEY]. This means options for answers are given and one response is circled or ticked.
Surveys that have categorised responses are able to show results quickly. The benefit of using the categorised system is that the person asking the questions (the interviewer) does not have to write down everything the interviewee (the person answering the question) says. The results can then be tallied quickly because they are quick, concise responses.
Extract from Geography for Global Citizens, Parker et al., 1999, p 330, reproduced by permission Macmillan Education Australia.