DO

Take time and effort to work out your sample correctly if you’re conducting a large scale survey. Read the relevant literature suggested in this book. Time taken at the beginning will save much wasted time later.

Discuss your proposed sampling procedure and size with your tutor, boss or other researchers.

Be realistic about the size of sample possible on your budget and within your time scale.

Be open and up front about your sample. What are your concerns? Could anything have been done differently? How might you improve upon your methods?

Use a combination of sampling procedures if it is appropriate for your work.

DON’T

Rush into your work without thinking very carefully about sampling issues. If you get it wrong it could invalidate your whole research.

Ignore advice from those who know what they’re talking about.

Take on more than you can cope with. A badly worked out, large sample may not produce as much useful data as a well-worked out, small sample.

Make claims which cannot be justified nor generalised to the whole population.

Stick rigorously to a sampling technique that is not working. Admit your mistakes, learn by them and change to something more appropriate