I'm just a newbie looking for insight

Adam W · Mar 28, 2018

I've looked at the survey and a had a go at completing it.
I found it was expecting too much of me, but at the same time duplicating questions in a seemingly nonsensical way - for example you ask how productivity is affected by the proportion of work subcontracted, then about the proportion of works subcontracted, then you give a line to explain the answers given to 15 questions including thinking up another option and explaining what that is (required).

I would suggest you break the survey down into several more specific surveys, for instance one on the effects of working in bad weather, and make the questions more specific, maybe giving an example of the kind of site you have in mind, not just 'all of them you've ever worked on'. 30 seconds to a couple of minutes is a reasonable time to expect someone to give up to help with your dissertation, any longer than that and you might find people won't bother.

Better still you could go to a construction site and offer to push a broom around for a few days, then you'd be able to gather your information first hand.

Rpa07 · Mar 28, 2018

Welcome to the forum by the way!

pirate · Mar 28, 2018

I don't mean to be harsh, but I have to agree that the average degree student's mastery of English is very poor compared with what would have been required in years gone by. I'm not talking University Challenge here, just saying that many of the students who get degrees nowadays would not have made it into University previously, far less graduated. It is a fault of the system, it's that simple...I've nothing against breaking the elitist system of university only for those and such as those, privileged people etc. however I do not have to tolerate what I perceive to be poor usage of the English language...it DOES matter, in my opinion...and I am old, so can say what I like about this!