Words: 1224
Critique of a Survey Starting with the introduction of the survey they seemed to be too specific in their intro of what was going to be in the survey by describing each type of question that would be presented throughout the survey. I feel like this information isn’t necessary and over excessive in an introduction. That part of the introduction should be taken out and instead maybe include something along the lines of “Please read every question carefully and thank you for participating” or something along those lines.
Regarding the question before the first question I feel like this makes answering the first question confusing because it makes it seem like I should be answering that question even though it is just a set up for the next questions. I think this question should be turned into a statement in some form because I think it would made the questions following it more clear and less confusing about whether one would have to answer that question.
Concerning the first question I think the Y/N should be changed into Yes or No to make it completely clear to everyone who is taking this survey and they know exactly what they are talking about when they say Y/N. I noticed almost all their Yes or No questions are written like that so they should change all of them to Yes or No. For questions 2 and 3 I think the interval scale should be more spread apart between each number and a space between each number instead of a dash so it’s a very clear distinction between each number.
Also, another very important part to intervals is making sure it is each end of the scale is defined, for example in their second question it says “How interested are you in attending graduate school? ” so for their interval it should say that what zero equals and what five equals like zero equals not interested and five equals very interested. For the question that starts the next section of questions I feel like again it should be stated as a statement instead of a question because it makes it confusing.
For question 4 I think they should slightly change their question to say “On average, how many hours do you work a week? ;” this should be included because hours per week can vary for people so asking for an average will give a more accurate answer. Also on this question, they presented the answers in a very confusing manner. I think they should take out the bullet points and instead make it multiple choice answers. Again with question 6 I think they should change the question to say “On average, how many additional hours have you had to work due to tuition? because hours can vary per week. Also with this question they should change the bullet points to be multiple-choice A-D answers and after each number in each answer they should put hours just to be extra clear what each number represents. For question 7 I feel like the phrasing of the question is a little off and maybe they should change it to something like, “Have you eaten out less often because of the rise of tuition? ” And like I said earlier, the Y/N should be changed to Yes or No just for clarification.
In question 8 I feel like they should also give examples of what is “nonessential” if examples of essential are given, just to clarify with the participant what they mean by each word. And also change the interval scale like I stated earlier. The wording of question 9 is a little off and I think it should be rephrased to say “Did you, your parents or guardians have to take out additional loans because of the tuition increase? ” And again, change the Y/N to Yes or No.
Similar to question 9 I believe the question could be worded a little better by rearranging some words around, I think the question should be, “Due to the increase in tuition, have you had to change your living situation? ” In question 11 the answers should be more clear what they mean by “state, or Federal aid” and “loans” because there are federal loans and that would make the answer repetitive, so maybe they could say state or federal loans and include grants within the answers also to cover all bases with financial aid.
Again, the question above question 12 should be reformatted to a statement instead because of possible confusion it could cause the participant of the survey. And for question 12 I feel like there should be another question or 2 because it seems odd that there is just one question concerning unpaid internships, maybe they could include more questions about why they took it. Or since the next section is on internships maybe you shouldn’t separate them and include question 12 in the next section so the format doesn’t look awkward.
In the instructions about the next set of questions it should be changed to “Indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements,” this should be added so that it doesn’t make it seem like you are leaning for them to answer agree to the statements. With questions 13 and 14 I think they should add more spacing to the numbers and get rid of the commas just to make each number distinguished and separate from the rest. For question 15 I think they should change it to “Are you trying to or thinking about graduating early to save on tuition costs? I think this makes the question more broad because people could be thinking about it, but don’t have the capabilities so adding trying would make it more clear of what you are asking. For question 16 the formatting of the answers makes it look kind of awkward and squished together. So I think they should put the numbers on top or below the description of the number to make it look less squished. For question 17 I think they should add to the statement or has left and make the statement, “I know someone who has considered leaving or has left the UW because of rising tuition costs. By doing this it also includes people someone may have known that went to the UW but then later left because of tuition. As for the demographic questions, I think they should add what they will be asking concerning grade level to clarify and to make sure they are considering every type of student at the UW. And I also think that age should be included in their demographic questions also because it could be useful in seeing their dependency financially possibly.
Overall, I think their survey questions were pretty good and nothing seemed too out of the ordinary and it stayed on topic with what was being asked for throughout the survey. Some things I would add to the overall survey would be statements or facts concerning the tuition because students may know about the increase but not know about how much is actually being increased or they may not even know if they don’t deal with their finances. Something similar could also be added to the introduction also just to give the participant a better idea of what they will be asked about.