July 27, 2011
Presenting survey results accurately and clearly is just as important as how you conduct the survey. Presented well, the results of a survey are informative and enlightening. But poor presentation can confound the study and threaten your credibility as a researcher. Bar charts are easy-to-interpret representations of survey data. A bar chart can compare frequency of responses to Likert items, which measure respondents’ levels of agreement or disagreement with an issue. A typical Likert scale includes the responses, “strongly agree,” “agree,” “neither agree nor disagree,” “disagree” and “strongly disagree.”
Step 1
Gather your data. Bar charts represent discrete values, not percentages. Use the raw sums of responses to each item for your bar chart.
Step 2
Create a bar chart for each individual item. Each survey question should be represented in its own chart. One bar corresponds to each possible response: “strongly agree,” “agree,” “neither agree nor disagree,” “disagree” and “strongly disagree.
Step 3
Make a frequency scale on one axis. Always include zero and label periodic intervals.
Step 4
List the possible responses on the other axis. This is where the bars will begin. Bar charts can be situated horizontally or vertically, so the axes are interchangeable.
Step 5
Create a bar for each response that represents the frequency of that response.
Step 6
Label each bar chart with the substance of the Likert item measured. The exact wording of the question is preferable.
Step 7
Repeat this process for each Likert item. If possible, maintain the same frequency scale for each chart so that, when viewed side-by-side, the charts measure responses equally.
Resources and References
No comments:
Post a Comment