ABSTRACT
The idea of conducting a survey is deceptively simple. It involves identifying a specific group or category of people and collecting information from some of them in order to gain insight into what the entire group does or thinks; however, undertaking a survey inevitably raises questions that may be difficult to answer. How many people need to be surveyed in order to be able to describe fairly accurately the entire group? How should the people be selected? What questions should be asked and how should they be posed to respondents? In addition, what data collection methods should one consider using, and are some of those methods of collecting data better than others? And, once one has collected the information, how should it be analyzed and reported? Deciding to do a survey means committing oneself to work through a myriad of issues each of which is critical to the ultimate success of the survey.
