Page 106 - DSOC404_METHODOLOGY_OF_SOCIAL_RESEARCH_ENGLISH

Methodology of Social Research

notes support is taken from no matter how experienced a person or literature, still possibility of flaws in
it cannot be denied. Hence, it is important that questionnaire is pre-tested. through it we will know
that whether the respondents are able to understand the correct meaning of the questions or not, how
do they interpret them, length of the questionnaire, subject–matter, what kind of amendments are
needed in language style etc. many a times, after the distribution of questionnaires, their flaws are
known. Hence, it is important that it is seen by testing them beforehand that there is no shortcoming
in its structure or wordings. sleto has written, “in short, process of pretesting provides the means
of taking out errors on operation before they impose huge penalty in form of negligible amount of
authentic and credible answers and answers coming in less ratio. Pre-testing is essentially a process
of trial and error in which successful tests are repeated and when questionnaire is finally sent to the
final group, errors are removed from it.”

Notes Whatever errors are known on doing pre-testing, to remove them, changes
and amendments should be done in the questionnaire. if errors are too many,
questionnaire should be re-built.

Uses and merits of pre-testing are mentioned below:
1. through pre-testing, we get to know those questions whose answers, respondents do not
know and in whose answer they write sentences like ‘not known’ or ‘i don’t know’ etc. this
flaw may be removed thought appropriate questions.
2. through it fault in order of questions is known.
3. if options given in answer to the questions are less then it is known and required options
are added.
4. those questions are known answering which, respondents do not consider being important
and places for answers are left blank.
5. Questions that prompt more than necessary conditions or uncalled for criticism are
known.
6. Unnecessary and unrelated questions are known.
7. through it capacity and eagerness of respondent is known.
8. Authenticity and credibility of questionnaire is increased.
9. from the point of view of tabulation, appropriate headings and facts are obtained.
10. As a result of it number of responses increase.
for pre-testing it is important that (i) initially questionnaire is printed in less quantity. (ii) the area
that needs to be studied, from it a small sample is chosen and only to it questionnaires are sent for
pre-testing. (iii) pre-testing is done in form of personal interview (iv) questions which are not replied
correctly, they are amended or left out.

Accompanying Letter

After doing the pre-testing and giving the final form to the questionnaire, questionnaires are sent
through post for data compilation. Along with it a letter is also sent by the institute or person doing the
research, which is known as accompanying letter. in this letter, respondent is given the introduction
of institution doing the research, he is told the subject and purpose of research and a request is made

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