WPSphere Repository (William Paterson University)

Dr. Arnold Speert at the podium

Communication students work in a studio at William Paterson University. Undated. Date range is approximate

Communication students work in a studio at William Paterson University

In-person class registration outside Wayne Hall at Paterson State College in the late 1960s. Undated. Date is approximate

In-person class registration outside Wayne Hall at Paterson State College in the late 1960s

David and Lorraine Cheng Library

Cheng Chat by Richard Kearney 
 
Creating Effective Surveys 
Surveys are the bread and butter of social science research, and plenty of surveying is 
done right here at William Paterson University. 
 We’ve got many degree programs – at least one in every college - that require a course in 
research methods. Students with questionnaires in hand fan out across campus each semester 
looking for willing respondents. The Library is a popular spot for students looking to collect data 
with surveys.  
Librarians can also help you design high-quality surveys by guiding you to samples, 
handbooks and databases that offer practical tips. 
 Many students tell us that the fun part of a sociological or marketing research project is 
going out and collecting data. After all, you can meet some new and interesting people that way. 
 But don’t jump the gun! Good surveys demand good planning.  
 Writing survey questions before you have a clear idea of your project’s objectives, or a 
hypothesis you want to test, or a research question you want to answer, can cause big problems 
when you start looking at that stack of completed surveys and find a major disconnect between 
what you wanted and what you got. 
 Or maybe your project was supposed to include the use of specific statistical tests but you 
wrote your survey questions in such a way that only nominal data was collected? This is a big 
problem too. 
 Many high-quality surveys can look quite simple, but the best ones involve lots of 
thought and planning to avoid trouble down the road. 
 If you want the time and effort you invest in that research project to be repaid with good 
results – and a good grade! – make sure to do that critical advance work before you start writing 
survey questions. 
 Be clear about what you want to know, and why. People who agree to take your survey 
have limited time, so every question you ask needs to be clearly written and connected with the 
specific objectives of your survey. Even a very short list of two or three clear outcomes can be an 
indispensable tool when it’s time to write questions. 
 We use a lot of ordinary language in social research, but many common words mean 
different things to different people. If you want to study things like success, or poverty, or 
injustice, or customer satisfaction, or countless other subjects, you must take the time and trouble 
to be explicit about how you define them. 
 Doing this will be enormously helpful when it’s time to come up with empirical measures 
and write survey questions to capture such information. 
 While there are many other steps involved in designing good surveys, these key tasks at 
the start of a project are most important. 
 The Library invites you to learn more about the resources it provides for survey design at 
our upcoming workshop, “Designing High-Quality Survey Questionnaires Using Library 
Resources.” We’re offering this on Thursday, November 6, at 4:00 pm in the Cheng Library’s 
Paterson Room. Bring your projects, bring your questions, and find out how we can help you! 
 


ChengChat

Cheng Chat by Mark Sandford 
 
Beyond Paper 
  
Do you print out articles and slides to bring to class so you can refer to them or takes notes on 
them?  Did you just print out five copies of that thirty slide presentation to share with your group 
so they can edit it?  Do you live in fear of hitting that 300 page print limit before mid-terms?  If 
so, take a few minutes to learn about some of the options available for your phones, tablets and 
laptops.  Below is a quick list of free apps that make interacting with digital documents easy.  
Adobe Reader for iOS and Android has been updated with some great features that go beyond 
just reading PDFs.  You can add notes, highlight passages, and draw directly onto PDFs using 
your phone or tablet.  And since most modern operating systems will let you convert Word docs 
and PowerPoint slides into PDFs, it becomes a great tool for working with all kinds of files. 
Both Office 365 and Google Drive will let you create and share documents, slide presentations, 
and spreadsheets online.  All WPU students have access to Office365 through your student 
email, and can even download the full software to your laptop or PC.  Google Drive has the 
added benefit of some really great (and free) apps for iOS and Android that can be used to create, 
edit, or share those documents.  But, beware, Google Drive may lack some of the more advanced 
features you can find in Excel or PowerPoint. 
Having trouble keeping track of all your files?  Both Office 365 and Google Drive give you 
some storage space in the cloud, but many prefer the more user and device-friendly Dropbox.  
Install Dropbox on your laptop, PC, or mobile device and a new folder will show up.  Anything 
saved there will automatically be saved to your online account, and synced on any device on 
which you have the app installed.  Sign in to the website and you can download or share files 
from any computer.  It’s like a thumb drive you can never lose.  The PDF reader for the mobile 
Dropbox is also pretty powerful! 
Just taking notes?  Evernote is a great tool for organizing just about anything.  It allows you to 
organize your class notes by course, topic, or whatever makes sense to you.  For example, did 
your professor just solve a complex math problem on the whiteboard?  Snap a photo of it and 
save it along with your lecture notes for that class.  Or, record the planning session of your group 
project so you can go back and hear everyone’s ideas a second time, then save it in the same 
online notebook that has the four websites you saved on the topic.  Evernote handles all kinds of 
media, so you can keep all of your important class information in one place. 
Want to try out these apps?  Check out the guide here for links to all of the apps mentioned in 
this article, as well as other tools to make your digital life easier, more organized, and save you 
money. 
http://guides.wpunj.edu/printapps 


William Paterson University research and scholarly publications compiled for the annual authors reception

Research and Scholarship Day

Students walk in front of the Student Center on the campus of William Paterson University during night classes. Photograph is undated

Students walk in front of the Student Center on the campus of William Paterson University during night classes

Science students attend a lecture at William Paterson University. Undated. Date range is approximate

Science students attend a lecture at William Paterson University

William Paterson University Board of Trustees

Board of Trustee Minutes 02/07/2014

A new student gets some help moving into her William Paterson University residence hall at the beginning of freshman year. Photograph is undated

Not a member yet

Dr. Arnold Speert at the podium

Communication students work in a studio at William Paterson University

In-person class registration outside Wayne Hall at Paterson State College in the late 1960s

ChengChat

ChengChat

Research and Scholarship Day

Students walk in front of the Student Center on the campus of William Paterson University during night classes

Science students attend a lecture at William Paterson University

Board of Trustee Minutes 02/07/2014

A student moves into her William Paterson University residence hall

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