how to create effective surveys

Thousands of books and articles have been written about survey methodology, but in case you don’t have hours to devote to becoming a guru, here are ten best practices to consider when building and distributing your survey.

1. Make Sure That Every Question Is Necessary

You’re building your survey to obtain important insights, so every question in the survey should play a direct part. It’s best to plan your survey by first identifying the data you need to collect and then writing your questions.

2. Keep it Short and Simple

Respondents are less likely to complete long surveys, or surveys that bounce around haphazardly from topic to topic. Therefore, make sure your survey follows a logical order and that it takes a reasonable amount of time to complete.

3. Ask Direct Questions

Vague or poorly worded questions confuse respondents and make your data less useful. Strive for clear and precise language that will make your questions easy to answer.

See an example:

4. Ask One Question at a Time

Take a closer look at questions in your survey that contain the word “and”—it can be a red flag that your question has two parts. Here’s a sample: “Which of these cell phone service providers has the best customer support and reliability?” In this case, a respondent may feel that one service is more reliable, but another has better customer support.

See an example:

5. Avoid Leading and Biased Questions

Some descriptive words and phrases may interject some bias into your questions, or point the respondent in the direction of a particular answer. In particular, scrutinize adjectives and adverbs in your questions. If they’re not needed, take them out.

In addition, an unbalanced response scale can lead a respondent in the same way a poorly worded question might. Make sure your response scales have a definitive midpoint (aim for odd numbers of possible responses) and that they cover the whole range of possible reactions to the question.

See an example:

6. Speak Your Respondent’s Language

Use language and terminology that your respondents will understand. Make words and sentences as simple as possible and avoid technical jargon. However, don’t oversimplify a question to the point that it will change the way the question will be interpreted.

See an example:

7. Use Response Scales Whenever Possible

Response scales that give the direction and intensity of attitudes provide rich data. By contrast, categorical or binary response options, such as true/false or yes/no response options, generally produce less informative data.

Avoid using scales that ask respondents to agree or disagree with statements, however. Some people are biased toward agreeing with statements, and this can result in invalid and unreliable data.

See an example:

8. Avoid Using Grids or Matrices for Responses

Oftentimes respondents don’t fill in grids correctly or accurately according to their true feelings. Also, grids aren’t mobile-friendly. It’s better to separate questions with grid responses into multiple questions in your survey with regular response scales.

See an example:

9. Rephrase Yes/No Questions if Possible

Many yes/no questions can be reworked by including phrases such as “How much,” “How often,” or “How likely.” Make this change whenever possible and include a response scale for richer data.

See an example:

10. Take Your Survey for a Test Drive

Ask at least five people to test your survey to help you catch and correct problems before you distribute.

Reference: 

https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/10-tips-for-building-effective-surveys/

Introduction to Infrared Spectroscopy

Introduction to Infrared Spectroscopy

Chapter 16 Instrumental Analysis

Definition of Infrared

Spectroscopy

w The absorption of light, as it passes through a medium, varies linearly with the distance the light travels and with concentration of the absorbing medium.  Where a is the absorbance, the Greek lower-case letter epsilon is a characteristic constant for each material at a given wavelength (known as the extinction coefficient or absorption coefficient), c is concentration, and l is the length of the light path, the absorption of light may be expressed by the simple equation a= epsilon times c times l.

Infrared Spectroscopy

w  Infrared spectroscopy is the measurement of the wavelength and intensity of the absorption of mid-infrared light by a sample. Mid-infrared is energetic enough to excite molecular vibrations to higher energy levels.

w  The wavelength of infrared absorption bands is characteristic of specific types of chemical bonds, and infrared spectroscopy finds its greatest utility for identification of organic and organometallic molecules. The high selectivity of the method makes the estimation of an analyte in a complex matrix possible.

Example of IR

Theory of Infrared Absorption

Spectroscopy

w  For a molecule to absorb IR, the vibrations or rotations within a molecule must cause a net change in the dipole moment of the molecule. The alternating electrical field of the radiation (remember that electromagnetic radiation consists of an oscillating electrical field and an oscillating magnetic field, perpendicular to each other) interacts with fluctuations in the dipole moment of the molecule.

w  If the frequency of the radiation matches the vibrational frequency of the molecule then radiation will be absorbed, causing a change in the amplitude of molecular vibration.

Molecular Rotations

w  Rotational transitions are of little use to the spectroscopist. Rotational levels are quantized, and absorption of IR by gases yields line spectra.

w  However, in liquids or solids, these lines broaden into a continuum due to molecular collisions and other interactions.

Molecular Rotations (cont)

,   

Vibrational-Rotational

Transitions

w  In general, a molecule which is an excited vibrational state will have rotational energy and can lose energy in a transition which alters both the vibrational and rotational energy content of the molecule.

w  The total energy content of the molecule is given by the sum of the vibrational and rotational energies. For a molecule in a specific vibrational and rotational state, denoted by the pair of quantum numbers (v, J), we can write its energy as: E(v, J)=E_vib(v) + E_rot(J)

Transitions (cont)

w  The energies of these three transitions form a very distinctive pattern. If we consider the lower vibrational state to be the initial state, then we can label the absorption lines as follows.

w  Transitions for which the J quantum number decreases by 1 are called P-branch transitions, those which increase by 1 are called R-branch transitions and those which are unchanged are called Q-branch transitions.

Molecular Vibrations

w   In order to predict equilibrium stable-isotope fractionations, it is necessary to know the characteristic frequencies of molecular vibrations. It is also necessary to know how much each vibrational frequency in a molecule changes when a heavy isotope is substituted for a light one. Vibrational frequencies for isotopically substituted molecules are not always known, so it is often necessary to use some type of force-field model to predict them.

w   Molecular vibrations are also important in understanding infrared absorption and the mechanisms and kinetics of chemical

reactions. Frequencies are most commonly measured with infrared or Raman spectroscopy. Rotational-vibrational spectroscopy, isotope substitution, and many forms of force-field modeling are used to determine characteristic atomic motions.

Vibrational Motion

w  Subdivided into so-called normal modes of vibration which rapidly increase with the number of atoms in the molecule. Each of these normal vibrational modes contributes RT to the average molar energy of the substance and is a primary reason why heat capacities increase with molecular complexity.

w  If there are X_vib modes of vibration, then the vibrational energy contributes X_vib(RT) to the average molar energy of the substance.

Stretching and Bending

Stretching Vibrations

Bending Vibrations

Quantum Treatment of

Vibrations

w  Transitions in vibrational energy levels can be brought about by absorption of radiation, provided the energy of the radiation exactly matches the difference in energy levels between the vibrational quantum states and provided also that the vibration causes a fluctuation in dipole.

w  Infrared measurements permit the evaluation of the force constants for various types of chemical bonds.

Infrared Instruments

w  An infrared spectrophotometer is an instrument that passes infrared light through an organic molecule and produces a spectrum that contains a plot of the amount of light transmitted on the vertical axis against the wavelength of infrared radiation on the horizontal axis. In infrared spectra the absorption peaks point downward because the vertical axis is the percentage transmittance of the radiation through the sample.

w  Absorption of radiation lowers the percentage transmittance value. Since all bonds in an organic molecule interact with infrared radiation, IR spectra provide a considerable amount of structural data.

References

w   http://www.acs.org

w   http://www.cas.org

w   http://www.chemcenter/org

w   http://www.sciencemag.org

w   http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/sci/chem/tutorials/molspec/irspec/.htm

w   http://www.kerouac.pharm.uky.edu/asrg/wave/wavehp.html

w   http://hiq.lindegas.com/international/web/lg/spg/likelgspg.nsf/DocByAlias/anal_infra

Today's Lecture on Mass Spectrometry

mass-spectrometry

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mass spectrometry

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