[Air-L] Internet usage

[loriken at uiuc.edu]

Alecea, 

I don't know the context or purpose of your research, but I'd like to persuade you not to use an "informal open ended survey" for your data-gathering method.  By "preliminary research" I assume you mean that you're doing an exploratory study.  Surveys are better suited to collection of data that will be analyzed deductively.  If you have open-ended questions you want to ask people, you're probably better off doing qualitative in-depth interviews.  In this instance, you're likely to lose the advantages of qualitative methods without gaining the advantages surveys can give.  

If you'd like to discuss this further, feel free to contact me off list.

Lori