How to Develop Survey Questions

The survey questions that you will include in a survey questionnaire is one of the vital parts of the document. It is important for you to create questions that can actually affect your research or any kinds of a survey in an appropriate, concise and necessary manner. Survey questions may be easy to review but it is actually hard to make. Specific studies require particular survey questions which is the reason why you have to be aware of how you can develop survey questions that are beneficial for what you would like to achieve.

If it is for the first time that you are creating or write surveys, fret not as we will discuss certain information and tips in this post which can help you in terms of developing effective and highly-usable survey questions. Make sure to thoroughly review the content of this post so you can have references when you are already in the process of making your own survey questions.

What Type of Survey Questions You Should Use

Do you want to come up with customer survey questions, or will you use the gathered data for academic activities? There are different kind of survey questions which can be applied to your survey questionnaire. This varies on the kind of data that you want to be knowledgeable of and the survey process that you will implement. Some survey question types include the following:

• Ordinal questions are created if you want to identify something within an order. It can either be logical or chronological depending on the information that you would like to identify. Most ordinal questions follow drop down formats and some also incorporate the ranking method when necessary.
• Ratio questions also known as interval questions are used if you want specific information to be used for your analysis. Ratio questions are commonly used for advanced research and studies as it allows researchers to gather data necessary for average findings and correlation identification.
• Categorical questions are used if you want to come up with a basic yet working and usable survey questionnaire. Categorical questions can be answered through multiple choice, answering with yes or no or in a checkbox.

The Initial Processes for Survey Question Development

Just like any other business or academic undertaking, you need to start somewhere so you can achieve what you want while writing survey questionnaires. This goes with the development of the survey questions that you will use for a questionnaire may it be for research or corporate purposes. Here are some of the initial guides that can help you develop your survey questions:

• Know whether you have something to prove or there is a specific information that you would like to give focus on. This will help you to be more objective while being precise with what you need to know as well.
• Identify the purpose of the survey so you can come up with questions that are actually relevant to the objective that you would like the survey to achieve.
• Ensure that all the questions that you will include matter. Again, review the reason why you have to create the survey questionnaire so you can come up with questions that are essential for the activity.
• Brainstorm the details that you want to gather so you can list the questions which you think will be helpful in terms of data acquisition.
• Identify what you want, including the answers that you wish to see in the survey. Develop survey questions based on the items that you have listed so you can assess whether people have the same answers as you do.

How to Come Up with Effective Survey Questions

Coming up with survey questions is hard as it will serve as the foundation of the entire survey questionnaire. If you will use ineffective survey questions, it is most likely that your surveying activity is up to no good. Here are some guidelines that can help you develop survey questions that actually works:

• As much as possible, use a conversational language that most people will understand. Avoid using technical terms or jargons which may sound unfamiliar to other people especially in the market or community where you will conduct your survey.
• If you are working with concepts which have a wide range of implications, it is best if you will identify the specific area that you would like to talk about. Break down your questions into minute details so that it can directly target the information that you would like to know.
• Make the tone and content structure of your survey questions simple and precise. It will not give positive impacts to your surveying if you will have words that may be interpreted differently as it will mislead the way your community will answer the questions.
• Do not create questions that are subjective. Leading questions can actually negatively affect the results of your survey.
• Be specific about how you would like the questions to be answered. Guiding the people who will answer the survey without interfering with their decisions can make your survey questionnaire a success.

Do not fall in making survey questions that promote bias and framing. It is best if you will develop questions that are complete and direct to the point so you can easily help the people tasked to answer the survey have a faster time to respond. If you still couldn’t make survey questions through the help of the information that we have specified, we suggest you to use existing samples of the survey that you want to come up with and incorporate the situation where you are currently at so you can start putting together all the survey questions that are essential for your study.

Though having effective survey questions is not an easy task, starting to develop them is already a good way to come up with a comprehensive survey questionnaire. With the information specified in this post, we hope you will have a more efficient time when it comes to building the content of your survey questionnaire. Make your survey questions now and refer to this discussion while doing so.