This handout accompanied the April 17, 2009 presentation on surveys for honors thesis writers.

This workshop is designed to present a short introduction to survey research for undergraduate students considering using surveys in their honors theses or other research.  This workshop will provide a broad overview of the survey research process and focus on some of the unique aspects of survey data. We will also briefly look at sources for secondary survey data within Harvard and elsewhere, and provide a short introduction to writing survey questions.

Responses from surveys don't get turned into numbers that can be analyzed without a bit of work.  This guide is designed for beginning survey researchers and provides an overview of basic steps to transform survey questions into data that can be analyzed.  This handout is used in some of our introductory courses and workshops.

This PSR Tip Sheet provides the basic language and terminology of survey research.