There are various methods that are practiced in research and one among them is the Survey method which is more commonly used in the Social research. The survey research is a method of measurement where the respondents are being asked a set of questions.
The set of questions are predetermined and are formatted and the respondents are supposed to answer these questions. Types of Survey Methods
Indeed the survey can very well range from a short filling up of the feedback form to the range of an in depth interview. Mostly the Survey type of research method is often classified into two broad type of methods. These are the interview and the questionnaire method.
Questionnaire Survey Method
Usually the questionnaires are paper and pencil based instruments that the respondents are supposed to complete. For this type of survey method the researcher has to first format and form the question patterns that are supposed to be circulated to the respondents which they have to very well answer.
Interview Survey Method
Interviews are conducted by the researcher by means of asking a set of questions to the respondent during the course of the interview and the researcher makes a note of the answers. In many cases the people find it very difficult to usually differentiate between the interview method and the questionnaire method. It is a general belief that the questionnaire method often asks closed ended questions and an interview always asks open ended questions but generally this turns out to be wrong since the reverse also happens in most of the cases.
Modern Survey Methods
In the modern days the Survey method has undergone a big transformation and this transformation has remarkably happened in the last 10 years. Nowadays the most improvised survey methods that are used are the automated random surveys that use the telephone as the main medium for taking the surveys.
Mail Survey Method
Another very common type of survey that is the mail survey that asks the people to fill up the questions being asked in the mail and then send it back to them. This type of survey is usually done where the researcher and the respondents are located far away form each other. The advantage of this type of survey is that the researcher a large amount of data in the form of questionnaires from a very large number of people who are very well located in various parts of the country. The only disadvantage of this type of survey is that the mail survey takes a lot of time and the time lag of sending the questionnaires and the respondent filling up the form and then sending it back to the researcher usually takes a lot of time. Hence before going in for the mail survey the researcher has to very well determine the need for such a kind of survey and also very well determine the time frame for such a process. For researches that involve a strict time duration the researcher has to very well go in for other type of research methods and very well abstain from this mail survey method.
Conclusion
Thus the above were the various survey methods that are being very commonly used by a researcher during the process of a research activity.
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