ABSTRACT
It is suggested that researchers may find it useful to work through these issues in sequence, though, clearly, a degree of recursion is desirable.
The questionnaire is a widely used and useful instrument for collecting survey information, providing structured, often numerical data, being able to be administered without the presence of the researcher, and often being comparatively straightforward to analyse (Wilson and McLean 1994). These attractions have to be counterbalanced by the time taken to develop, pilot and refine the questionnaire, by the possible unsophistication and limited scope of the data that are collected, and from the likely limited flexibility of response (though, as Wilson and McLean (1994: 3) observe, this can frequently be an attraction). The researcher will have to judge the appropriateness of using a questionnaire for data collection, and, if so, what kind of questionnaire it should be.
