Need to write a survey? Surveys are among the best ways to conduct research, allowing you to get your answers straight from the source. There are ways of writing a survey, though, that make them more effective at deriving the results you’re looking for. If you could use the help, here’s a quick guide to writing surveys that work.
1. Define a clear purpose. Make sure you have a clear, singular purpose for your survey. Your overall goal will define what questions you need to ask, how they need to be structured and where they should all lead to.
2. Create a good title. As with most pieces of writing, a crafty title will convey the essence of what the subject is about as well as pique the respondents’ interest.
3. Keep the length sensible. I’m seldom to helping people out when they need me to fill out a survey form, but I immediately turn them down when it’s too long. Keep your survey as short as possible to encourage people to respond, focusing on the important questions while keeping the secondary items to a minimum.
4. Use plain, clear and correct English. Mistake-laden surveys will tend to distract the respondents while ambiguous questions will lead to unclear answers. As such, we highly recommend using both the grammar check feature and the style features in your writing software to correct any weaknesses in your survey writing.
5. Write your questions objectively. Surveys are tricky, especially when you have a particular agenda that you’re pushing for. You will need to write your questions as objectively as you can, avoiding influencing it by your phrasing. It’s a slippery slope and one you must tread with the utmost care.
6. Use a consistent answer format. Whether you use an open-ended, multiple choice or YES/NO answering format, try to be consistent within the entire survey. While nothing is stopping you from mixing and matching styles, respondents will have an easier time answering surveys presented in a cohesive form.
7. Test the survey. Before rolling out a survey to a large group of respondents, test it first with a controlled group. It will help you catch potential points of ambiguity as well as identify questions that don’t help your overall purpose.
Tags: effective surveys, surveys, writing survey, writing surveys
