How can I develop effective survey questions?
- Clarity, simplicity, length, and acceptability are keys to creating effective survey questions.
- Avoid complicated, long, and ambiguous questions.
- Try not to address too many issues in one question.
- Try not to ask too many questions in one survey.
- Try not to ask difficult questions.
What question formats are there?
- There are two question basic formats. Depending on your goal, you can use both combination in a survey:
- Forced (closed-ended)
- Open-ended
Can you give me some examples of closed- and open-ended questions?
- Let's say you are interested in studying people's environment concerns through shopping habits:
- Forced (closed-ended) question examples:
- "Do you use a reusable shopping bag when you go grocery shopping?"
- "Yes" or "No" (Note: Survey respondents are forced to choose one of the two)
- "How frequently do you use a reusable shopping bag when you do grocery shopping?"
- "Very infrequently", "Somewhat infrequently", "Occasionally", "Somewhat frequently", "Very frequently" (Note: Survey respondents are forced to choose one out of the multiple choices)
- Open-ended question examples:
- "In the last 30 days, how many times have you used a reusable shopping bag when doing grocery shopping?" (Note: Survey respondents are allowed to use either numeric values or text entries)
- "Please describe why (or why not) you use a reusable shopping bag for grocery shopping." (Note: Survey respondents can freely write their answers if they want to)
Does ordering of questions influence survey results?
- Yes, it does. The natural and logical flow of survey is important to collect good survey results.
- Start and end the survey with easy questions.
- Start the survey with most familiar questions.
- Keep in mind that a high response rate does not guarantee a high survey completion rate - in many online surveys, people do not always complete a survey.
Do you have any other suggestions for conducting a good survey research?
- Invitation: Creating a good invitation to participate in your survey is important. In your survey invitation (email) letter, try to include 1-2 sentences describing a purpose or goal of your survey.
- Disclosure:
- Mention length of survey
- Ensure that responses are confidential
- Ensure that participation is voluntary
- Provide contact information in the cases where participants have questions about survey
- Pretesting: Before administering a survey, make sure you test your survey in advance. Survey pretesting will help you determine the effectiveness of your survey.