Surveys are designed to:
There are several types of surveys, including:
How can I develop effective survey questions?
Clarity, simplicity, length, and acceptability are keys to create effective survey questions. In crafting your survey, you should avoid complicated, long, and ambiguous questions. Try not to address too many issues in one question - thus avoid double-barreled questions. Try not to ask too many questions in one survey. Try not to ask too difficult questions.
What question formats are there?
There are two basic formats: 1) Forced (closed-ended), and 2) Open-ended. You can use a combination of both in a survey depending on your goal.
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:
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?
Survey research involves the use of questionnaires and/or statistical surveys to gather data about people and their thoughts and behaviors.
The second video in Pew Research Center's "Methods 101" series helps explain question wording – a concept at the center of sound public opinion survey research – and why it’s important.