Sample Survey Introduction

This letter can be used as your e-mail introduction to the survey. Be sure to fill in all blanks before sending it, and modify, if you wish.

Dear _________________:

Our names are _____________. We are undergraduate students in English 120 at North Dakota State University, and we conducting a research study gather information from students, teachers, administrators, and future employers about the writing skills students at our university need and the best ways to help students develop those skills. Results of this study will help us learn more about how to design a writing program that meets the needs of all our constituencies: teachers, students, administrators, and employers.

You are invited to participate in this study. Your participation is entirely voluntary; however, your assistance would be greatly appreciated in making this a meaningful survey. If you decide to participate in this project, print and keep this sheet for your information.

It should take about 10 minutes to complete the web questionnaire. You will find this questionaire at_________________. Each question includes information on how to choose your answers. At the end of the survey, you will find information on how to submit your survey.

Your identity will not be revealed in the experiment results; in fact, because of the computerized nature of this survey, it will be impossible for us to retrieve individual responses. Only group comparisons will be made and reported in summary form.

If you have any questions about this project, please feel free to contact my professor, Betsy Birmingham, at Elizabeth.Birmingham@ndsu.nodak.edu or look up our class web site for specific information on problem-based learning and the problem we are responding to: http://www.ndsu.nodsk.edu/ndsu/birmingh/teaching/120/120index.htm. If you have questions about the rights of human research participants, you should contact the NDSU IRB office, (701) 231-8908.

Thank you for generously sharing your time to participate in this study. If you wish to receive a copy of the research results, please fill in your e-mail address in the appropriate box when you've completed the web survey.

Sincerely,

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