Surveys 1

Surveys are used to find out what people think about a wide range of things from food, cosmetics, holidays and cars to politics and how you rate your daily newspaper – in fact, anything at all.

Questionnaires, which are basically collections of questions, are carefully constructed for use in surveys. Market research organisations are paid to use questionnaires on behalf of companies that offer many different products and services. These companies need to know customers' views so that they can improve what they sell.

Sometimes interviewers stop people in the street and ask them to fill in questionnaires. This can also be done by post, by telephone and on the Internet.

Questionnaires could be useful as part of a Working with Others project. For example, you could use them in the following ways:

• to find out what potential customers think about something you are planning to sell
• to find out what people think about a range of issues such as smoking, underage drinking, vandalism, public transport, etc.