Writing Good Surveys
If you can afford it, hire a professional consultant. Writing
good surveys or questionnaires is harder than it looks. If you can't
hire a professional consultant, do keep at least the following points in
mind:
1. Write questions that all of your respondents will understand.
- Be specific
- Bad: "What do you think of this product?"
- Better: "How fresh does this bagel seem to you?"
- Use simple language (think of who your respondents are)
- Bad: "How inelastic does this bagel seem to you?
- Better: "How firm does this bagel seem to you?"
- All else being equal, shorter questions are better than longer
questions
- Shorter questions require less cognitive work to understand
2. Avoid leading questions/bias.
- Don't assume too much.
- Bad: "Why do you think everyone hates Microsoft products?"
- Better: "What are some of the things you don't like about Microsoft
Word?"
- Don't leave hints about what your opinion is.
- Bad: "Which of the following facts do you consider most important when
you think about why John Kerry would be a better president than Dubya?"
- Better: "Who do you think would make a better president, Kerry or
Bush? Why?"
3. Watch out for double-barreled questions.
- What does "double-barreled" mean?
- Bad: "Do you agree or disagree with President Bush's decisions to send
troops to Afghanistan and Iraq?"
- What could you do to fix this question?
- Bad: "How often do your children tell you that they love and appreciate
you?"
- What could you do to fix this question?
4. Give clear alternatives.
- Bad: "Does it seem likely to you that Hillary Clinton will run for
president in 2008?"
- Better: "Does it seem likely or unlikely to you that Hillary Clinton will
run for president in 2008?"
- Bad: "Does it seem possible to you that an American astronaut never
really landed on the moon?"
- Better: "Does it seem possible to you or impossible to you than an
American astronaut never really landed on the moon?"
5 Make sure your response options make sense.
- Bad: "Which of the following best describes your annual income?"
$0 -
$10,000
$10,000 -
$20,000
$20,000 -
$30,000
$40,000 or
more
- How is someone who makes $20,000/yr supposed to respond? How would you
correct this?
This page is hosted at the Manyitems Survey Portal. Some of the other pages
you may want to look at on this site include the survey questions
page, the guide to online psychology experiments,
and the data
transformations page.
|