write a short note on survey research

• Privacy Policy

Home » Survey Research – Types, Methods, Examples

Survey Research – Types, Methods, Examples

Table of Contents

Survey Research

Definition:

Survey Research is a quantitative research method that involves collecting standardized data from a sample of individuals or groups through the use of structured questionnaires or interviews. The data collected is then analyzed statistically to identify patterns and relationships between variables, and to draw conclusions about the population being studied.

Survey research can be used to answer a variety of questions, including:

• What are people’s opinions about a certain topic?
• What are people’s experiences with a certain product or service?
• What are people’s beliefs about a certain issue?

Survey Research Methods

Survey Research Methods are as follows:

• Telephone surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to respondents over the phone, often used in market research or political polling.
• Face-to-face surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to respondents in person, often used in social or health research.
• Mail surveys: A survey research method where questionnaires are sent to respondents through mail, often used in customer satisfaction or opinion surveys.
• Online surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to respondents through online platforms, often used in market research or customer feedback.
• Email surveys: A survey research method where questionnaires are sent to respondents through email, often used in customer satisfaction or opinion surveys.
• Mixed-mode surveys: A survey research method that combines two or more survey modes, often used to increase response rates or reach diverse populations.
• Computer-assisted surveys: A survey research method that uses computer technology to administer or collect survey data, often used in large-scale surveys or data collection.
• Interactive voice response surveys: A survey research method where respondents answer questions through a touch-tone telephone system, often used in automated customer satisfaction or opinion surveys.
• Mobile surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to respondents through mobile devices, often used in market research or customer feedback.
• Group-administered surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to a group of respondents simultaneously, often used in education or training evaluation.
• Web-intercept surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to website visitors, often used in website or user experience research.
• In-app surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to users of a mobile application, often used in mobile app or user experience research.
• Social media surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to respondents through social media platforms, often used in social media or brand awareness research.
• SMS surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to respondents through text messaging, often used in customer feedback or opinion surveys.
• IVR surveys: A survey research method where questions are administered to respondents through an interactive voice response system, often used in automated customer feedback or opinion surveys.
• Mixed-method surveys: A survey research method that combines both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, often used in exploratory or mixed-method research.
• Drop-off surveys: A survey research method where respondents are provided with a survey questionnaire and asked to return it at a later time or through a designated drop-off location.
• Intercept surveys: A survey research method where respondents are approached in public places and asked to participate in a survey, often used in market research or customer feedback.
• Hybrid surveys: A survey research method that combines two or more survey modes, data sources, or research methods, often used in complex or multi-dimensional research questions.

Types of Survey Research

There are several types of survey research that can be used to collect data from a sample of individuals or groups. following are Types of Survey Research:

• Cross-sectional survey: A type of survey research that gathers data from a sample of individuals at a specific point in time, providing a snapshot of the population being studied.
• Longitudinal survey: A type of survey research that gathers data from the same sample of individuals over an extended period of time, allowing researchers to track changes or trends in the population being studied.
• Panel survey: A type of longitudinal survey research that tracks the same sample of individuals over time, typically collecting data at multiple points in time.
• Epidemiological survey: A type of survey research that studies the distribution and determinants of health and disease in a population, often used to identify risk factors and inform public health interventions.
• Observational survey: A type of survey research that collects data through direct observation of individuals or groups, often used in behavioral or social research.
• Correlational survey: A type of survey research that measures the degree of association or relationship between two or more variables, often used to identify patterns or trends in data.
• Experimental survey: A type of survey research that involves manipulating one or more variables to observe the effect on an outcome, often used to test causal hypotheses.
• Descriptive survey: A type of survey research that describes the characteristics or attributes of a population or phenomenon, often used in exploratory research or to summarize existing data.
• Diagnostic survey: A type of survey research that assesses the current state or condition of an individual or system, often used in health or organizational research.
• Explanatory survey: A type of survey research that seeks to explain or understand the causes or mechanisms behind a phenomenon, often used in social or psychological research.
• Process evaluation survey: A type of survey research that measures the implementation and outcomes of a program or intervention, often used in program evaluation or quality improvement.
• Impact evaluation survey: A type of survey research that assesses the effectiveness or impact of a program or intervention, often used to inform policy or decision-making.
• Customer satisfaction survey: A type of survey research that measures the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of customers with a product, service, or experience, often used in marketing or customer service research.
• Market research survey: A type of survey research that collects data on consumer preferences, behaviors, or attitudes, often used in market research or product development.
• Public opinion survey: A type of survey research that measures the attitudes, beliefs, or opinions of a population on a specific issue or topic, often used in political or social research.
• Behavioral survey: A type of survey research that measures actual behavior or actions of individuals, often used in health or social research.
• Attitude survey: A type of survey research that measures the attitudes, beliefs, or opinions of individuals, often used in social or psychological research.
• Opinion poll: A type of survey research that measures the opinions or preferences of a population on a specific issue or topic, often used in political or media research.
• Ad hoc survey: A type of survey research that is conducted for a specific purpose or research question, often used in exploratory research or to answer a specific research question.

Types Based on Methodology

Based on Methodology Survey are divided into two Types:

Quantitative Survey Research

Qualitative survey research.

Quantitative survey research is a method of collecting numerical data from a sample of participants through the use of standardized surveys or questionnaires. The purpose of quantitative survey research is to gather empirical evidence that can be analyzed statistically to draw conclusions about a particular population or phenomenon.

In quantitative survey research, the questions are structured and pre-determined, often utilizing closed-ended questions, where participants are given a limited set of response options to choose from. This approach allows for efficient data collection and analysis, as well as the ability to generalize the findings to a larger population.

Quantitative survey research is often used in market research, social sciences, public health, and other fields where numerical data is needed to make informed decisions and recommendations.

Qualitative survey research is a method of collecting non-numerical data from a sample of participants through the use of open-ended questions or semi-structured interviews. The purpose of qualitative survey research is to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences, perceptions, and attitudes of participants towards a particular phenomenon or topic.

In qualitative survey research, the questions are open-ended, allowing participants to share their thoughts and experiences in their own words. This approach allows for a rich and nuanced understanding of the topic being studied, and can provide insights that are difficult to capture through quantitative methods alone.

Qualitative survey research is often used in social sciences, education, psychology, and other fields where a deeper understanding of human experiences and perceptions is needed to inform policy, practice, or theory.

Data Analysis Methods

There are several Survey Research Data Analysis Methods that researchers may use, including:

• Descriptive statistics: This method is used to summarize and describe the basic features of the survey data, such as the mean, median, mode, and standard deviation. These statistics can help researchers understand the distribution of responses and identify any trends or patterns.
• Inferential statistics: This method is used to make inferences about the larger population based on the data collected in the survey. Common inferential statistical methods include hypothesis testing, regression analysis, and correlation analysis.
• Factor analysis: This method is used to identify underlying factors or dimensions in the survey data. This can help researchers simplify the data and identify patterns and relationships that may not be immediately apparent.
• Cluster analysis: This method is used to group similar respondents together based on their survey responses. This can help researchers identify subgroups within the larger population and understand how different groups may differ in their attitudes, behaviors, or preferences.
• Structural equation modeling: This method is used to test complex relationships between variables in the survey data. It can help researchers understand how different variables may be related to one another and how they may influence one another.
• Content analysis: This method is used to analyze open-ended responses in the survey data. Researchers may use software to identify themes or categories in the responses, or they may manually review and code the responses.
• Text mining: This method is used to analyze text-based survey data, such as responses to open-ended questions. Researchers may use software to identify patterns and themes in the text, or they may manually review and code the text.

Applications of Survey Research

Here are some common applications of survey research:

• Market Research: Companies use survey research to gather insights about customer needs, preferences, and behavior. These insights are used to create marketing strategies and develop new products.
• Public Opinion Research: Governments and political parties use survey research to understand public opinion on various issues. This information is used to develop policies and make decisions.
• Social Research: Survey research is used in social research to study social trends, attitudes, and behavior. Researchers use survey data to explore topics such as education, health, and social inequality.
• Academic Research: Survey research is used in academic research to study various phenomena. Researchers use survey data to test theories, explore relationships between variables, and draw conclusions.
• Customer Satisfaction Research: Companies use survey research to gather information about customer satisfaction with their products and services. This information is used to improve customer experience and retention.
• Employee Surveys: Employers use survey research to gather feedback from employees about their job satisfaction, working conditions, and organizational culture. This information is used to improve employee retention and productivity.
• Health Research: Survey research is used in health research to study topics such as disease prevalence, health behaviors, and healthcare access. Researchers use survey data to develop interventions and improve healthcare outcomes.

Examples of Survey Research

Here are some real-time examples of survey research:

• COVID-19 Pandemic Surveys: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, surveys have been conducted to gather information about public attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions related to the pandemic. Governments and healthcare organizations have used this data to develop public health strategies and messaging.
• Political Polls During Elections: During election seasons, surveys are used to measure public opinion on political candidates, policies, and issues in real-time. This information is used by political parties to develop campaign strategies and make decisions.
• Customer Feedback Surveys: Companies often use real-time customer feedback surveys to gather insights about customer experience and satisfaction. This information is used to improve products and services quickly.
• Event Surveys: Organizers of events such as conferences and trade shows often use surveys to gather feedback from attendees in real-time. This information can be used to improve future events and make adjustments during the current event.
• Website and App Surveys: Website and app owners use surveys to gather real-time feedback from users about the functionality, user experience, and overall satisfaction with their platforms. This feedback can be used to improve the user experience and retain customers.
• Employee Pulse Surveys: Employers use real-time pulse surveys to gather feedback from employees about their work experience and overall job satisfaction. This feedback is used to make changes in real-time to improve employee retention and productivity.

Survey Sample

Purpose of survey research.

The purpose of survey research is to gather data and insights from a representative sample of individuals. Survey research allows researchers to collect data quickly and efficiently from a large number of people, making it a valuable tool for understanding attitudes, behaviors, and preferences.

Here are some common purposes of survey research:

• Descriptive Research: Survey research is often used to describe characteristics of a population or a phenomenon. For example, a survey could be used to describe the characteristics of a particular demographic group, such as age, gender, or income.
• Exploratory Research: Survey research can be used to explore new topics or areas of research. Exploratory surveys are often used to generate hypotheses or identify potential relationships between variables.
• Explanatory Research: Survey research can be used to explain relationships between variables. For example, a survey could be used to determine whether there is a relationship between educational attainment and income.
• Evaluation Research: Survey research can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a program or intervention. For example, a survey could be used to evaluate the impact of a health education program on behavior change.
• Monitoring Research: Survey research can be used to monitor trends or changes over time. For example, a survey could be used to monitor changes in attitudes towards climate change or political candidates over time.

When to use Survey Research

there are certain circumstances where survey research is particularly appropriate. Here are some situations where survey research may be useful:

• When the research question involves attitudes, beliefs, or opinions: Survey research is particularly useful for understanding attitudes, beliefs, and opinions on a particular topic. For example, a survey could be used to understand public opinion on a political issue.
• When the research question involves behaviors or experiences: Survey research can also be useful for understanding behaviors and experiences. For example, a survey could be used to understand the prevalence of a particular health behavior.
• When a large sample size is needed: Survey research allows researchers to collect data from a large number of people quickly and efficiently. This makes it a useful method when a large sample size is needed to ensure statistical validity.
• When the research question is time-sensitive: Survey research can be conducted quickly, which makes it a useful method when the research question is time-sensitive. For example, a survey could be used to understand public opinion on a breaking news story.
• When the research question involves a geographically dispersed population: Survey research can be conducted online, which makes it a useful method when the population of interest is geographically dispersed.

How to Conduct Survey Research

Conducting survey research involves several steps that need to be carefully planned and executed. Here is a general overview of the process:

• Define the research question: The first step in conducting survey research is to clearly define the research question. The research question should be specific, measurable, and relevant to the population of interest.
• Develop a survey instrument : The next step is to develop a survey instrument. This can be done using various methods, such as online survey tools or paper surveys. The survey instrument should be designed to elicit the information needed to answer the research question, and should be pre-tested with a small sample of individuals.
• Select a sample : The sample is the group of individuals who will be invited to participate in the survey. The sample should be representative of the population of interest, and the size of the sample should be sufficient to ensure statistical validity.
• Administer the survey: The survey can be administered in various ways, such as online, by mail, or in person. The method of administration should be chosen based on the population of interest and the research question.
• Analyze the data: Once the survey data is collected, it needs to be analyzed. This involves summarizing the data using statistical methods, such as frequency distributions or regression analysis.
• Draw conclusions: The final step is to draw conclusions based on the data analysis. This involves interpreting the results and answering the research question.

Advantages of Survey Research

There are several advantages to using survey research, including:

• Efficient data collection: Survey research allows researchers to collect data quickly and efficiently from a large number of people. This makes it a useful method for gathering information on a wide range of topics.
• Standardized data collection: Surveys are typically standardized, which means that all participants receive the same questions in the same order. This ensures that the data collected is consistent and reliable.
• Cost-effective: Surveys can be conducted online, by mail, or in person, which makes them a cost-effective method of data collection.
• Anonymity: Participants can remain anonymous when responding to a survey. This can encourage participants to be more honest and open in their responses.
• Easy comparison: Surveys allow for easy comparison of data between different groups or over time. This makes it possible to identify trends and patterns in the data.
• Versatility: Surveys can be used to collect data on a wide range of topics, including attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and preferences.

Limitations of Survey Research

Here are some of the main limitations of survey research:

• Limited depth: Surveys are typically designed to collect quantitative data, which means that they do not provide much depth or detail about people’s experiences or opinions. This can limit the insights that can be gained from the data.
• Potential for bias: Surveys can be affected by various biases, including selection bias, response bias, and social desirability bias. These biases can distort the results and make them less accurate.
• L imited validity: Surveys are only as valid as the questions they ask. If the questions are poorly designed or ambiguous, the results may not accurately reflect the respondents’ attitudes or behaviors.
• Limited generalizability : Survey results are only generalizable to the population from which the sample was drawn. If the sample is not representative of the population, the results may not be generalizable to the larger population.
• Limited ability to capture context: Surveys typically do not capture the context in which attitudes or behaviors occur. This can make it difficult to understand the reasons behind the responses.
• Limited ability to capture complex phenomena: Surveys are not well-suited to capture complex phenomena, such as emotions or the dynamics of interpersonal relationships.

Following is an example of a Survey Sample:

Welcome to our Survey Research Page! We value your opinions and appreciate your participation in this survey. Please answer the questions below as honestly and thoroughly as possible.

1. What is your age?

• A) Under 18
• G) 65 or older

2. What is your highest level of education completed?

• A) Less than high school
• B) High school or equivalent
• C) Some college or technical school
• D) Bachelor’s degree
• E) Graduate or professional degree

3. What is your current employment status?

• A) Employed full-time
• B) Employed part-time
• C) Self-employed
• D) Unemployed

4. How often do you use the internet per day?

•  A) Less than 1 hour
• B) 1-3 hours
• C) 3-5 hours
• D) 5-7 hours
• E) More than 7 hours

5. How often do you engage in social media per day?

6. Have you ever participated in a survey research study before?

7. If you have participated in a survey research study before, how was your experience?

• A) Excellent
• E) Very poor

8. What are some of the topics that you would be interested in participating in a survey research study about?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

9. How often would you be willing to participate in survey research studies?

• A) Once a week
• B) Once a month
• C) Once every 6 months
• D) Once a year

10. Any additional comments or suggestions?

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. Your feedback is important to us and will help us improve our survey research efforts.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

You may also like

Questionnaire – Definition, Types, and Examples

Case Study – Methods, Examples and Guide

Observational Research – Methods and Guide

Quantitative Research – Methods, Types and...

Qualitative Research Methods

Explanatory Research – Types, Methods, Guide

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, automatically generate references for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Methodology
• Doing Survey Research | A Step-by-Step Guide & Examples

Doing Survey Research | A Step-by-Step Guide & Examples

Published on 6 May 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 10 October 2022.

Survey research means collecting information about a group of people by asking them questions and analysing the results. To conduct an effective survey, follow these six steps:

• Determine who will participate in the survey
• Decide the type of survey (mail, online, or in-person)
• Design the survey questions and layout
• Distribute the survey
• Analyse the responses
• Write up the results

Surveys are a flexible method of data collection that can be used in many different types of research .

Table of contents

What are surveys used for, step 1: define the population and sample, step 2: decide on the type of survey, step 3: design the survey questions, step 4: distribute the survey and collect responses, step 5: analyse the survey results, step 6: write up the survey results, frequently asked questions about surveys.

Surveys are used as a method of gathering data in many different fields. They are a good choice when you want to find out about the characteristics, preferences, opinions, or beliefs of a group of people.

Common uses of survey research include:

• Social research: Investigating the experiences and characteristics of different social groups
• Market research: Finding out what customers think about products, services, and companies
• Health research: Collecting data from patients about symptoms and treatments
• Politics: Measuring public opinion about parties and policies
• Psychology: Researching personality traits, preferences, and behaviours

Surveys can be used in both cross-sectional studies , where you collect data just once, and longitudinal studies , where you survey the same sample several times over an extended period.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Before you start conducting survey research, you should already have a clear research question that defines what you want to find out. Based on this question, you need to determine exactly who you will target to participate in the survey.

Populations

The target population is the specific group of people that you want to find out about. This group can be very broad or relatively narrow. For example:

• The population of Brazil
• University students in the UK
• Second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands
• Customers of a specific company aged 18 to 24
• British transgender women over the age of 50

Your survey should aim to produce results that can be generalised to the whole population. That means you need to carefully define exactly who you want to draw conclusions about.

It’s rarely possible to survey the entire population of your research – it would be very difficult to get a response from every person in Brazil or every university student in the UK. Instead, you will usually survey a sample from the population.

The sample size depends on how big the population is. You can use an online sample calculator to work out how many responses you need.

There are many sampling methods that allow you to generalise to broad populations. In general, though, the sample should aim to be representative of the population as a whole. The larger and more representative your sample, the more valid your conclusions.

There are two main types of survey:

• A questionnaire , where a list of questions is distributed by post, online, or in person, and respondents fill it out themselves
• An interview , where the researcher asks a set of questions by phone or in person and records the responses

Which type you choose depends on the sample size and location, as well as the focus of the research.

Questionnaires

Sending out a paper survey by post is a common method of gathering demographic information (for example, in a government census of the population).

• You can easily access a large sample.
• You have some control over who is included in the sample (e.g., residents of a specific region).
• The response rate is often low.

Online surveys are a popular choice for students doing dissertation research , due to the low cost and flexibility of this method. There are many online tools available for constructing surveys, such as SurveyMonkey and Google Forms .

• You can quickly access a large sample without constraints on time or location.
• The data is easy to process and analyse.
• The anonymity and accessibility of online surveys mean you have less control over who responds.

If your research focuses on a specific location, you can distribute a written questionnaire to be completed by respondents on the spot. For example, you could approach the customers of a shopping centre or ask all students to complete a questionnaire at the end of a class.

• You can screen respondents to make sure only people in the target population are included in the sample.
• You can collect time- and location-specific data (e.g., the opinions of a shop’s weekday customers).
• The sample size will be smaller, so this method is less suitable for collecting data on broad populations.

Oral interviews are a useful method for smaller sample sizes. They allow you to gather more in-depth information on people’s opinions and preferences. You can conduct interviews by phone or in person.

• You have personal contact with respondents, so you know exactly who will be included in the sample in advance.
• You can clarify questions and ask for follow-up information when necessary.
• The lack of anonymity may cause respondents to answer less honestly, and there is more risk of researcher bias.

Like questionnaires, interviews can be used to collect quantitative data : the researcher records each response as a category or rating and statistically analyses the results. But they are more commonly used to collect qualitative data : the interviewees’ full responses are transcribed and analysed individually to gain a richer understanding of their opinions and feelings.

Next, you need to decide which questions you will ask and how you will ask them. It’s important to consider:

• The type of questions
• The content of the questions
• The phrasing of the questions
• The ordering and layout of the survey

Open-ended vs closed-ended questions

There are two main forms of survey questions: open-ended and closed-ended. Many surveys use a combination of both.

Closed-ended questions give the respondent a predetermined set of answers to choose from. A closed-ended question can include:

• A binary answer (e.g., yes/no or agree/disagree )
• A scale (e.g., a Likert scale with five points ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree )
• A list of options with a single answer possible (e.g., age categories)
• A list of options with multiple answers possible (e.g., leisure interests)

Closed-ended questions are best for quantitative research . They provide you with numerical data that can be statistically analysed to find patterns, trends, and correlations .

Open-ended questions are best for qualitative research. This type of question has no predetermined answers to choose from. Instead, the respondent answers in their own words.

Open questions are most common in interviews, but you can also use them in questionnaires. They are often useful as follow-up questions to ask for more detailed explanations of responses to the closed questions.

The content of the survey questions

To ensure the validity and reliability of your results, you need to carefully consider each question in the survey. All questions should be narrowly focused with enough context for the respondent to answer accurately. Avoid questions that are not directly relevant to the survey’s purpose.

When constructing closed-ended questions, ensure that the options cover all possibilities. If you include a list of options that isn’t exhaustive, you can add an ‘other’ field.

Phrasing the survey questions

In terms of language, the survey questions should be as clear and precise as possible. Tailor the questions to your target population, keeping in mind their level of knowledge of the topic.

Use language that respondents will easily understand, and avoid words with vague or ambiguous meanings. Make sure your questions are phrased neutrally, with no bias towards one answer or another.

Ordering the survey questions

The questions should be arranged in a logical order. Start with easy, non-sensitive, closed-ended questions that will encourage the respondent to continue.

If the survey covers several different topics or themes, group together related questions. You can divide a questionnaire into sections to help respondents understand what is being asked in each part.

If a question refers back to or depends on the answer to a previous question, they should be placed directly next to one another.

Before you start, create a clear plan for where, when, how, and with whom you will conduct the survey. Determine in advance how many responses you require and how you will gain access to the sample.

When you are satisfied that you have created a strong research design suitable for answering your research questions, you can conduct the survey through your method of choice – by post, online, or in person.

There are many methods of analysing the results of your survey. First you have to process the data, usually with the help of a computer program to sort all the responses. You should also cleanse the data by removing incomplete or incorrectly completed responses.

If you asked open-ended questions, you will have to code the responses by assigning labels to each response and organising them into categories or themes. You can also use more qualitative methods, such as thematic analysis , which is especially suitable for analysing interviews.

Statistical analysis is usually conducted using programs like SPSS or Stata. The same set of survey data can be subject to many analyses.

Finally, when you have collected and analysed all the necessary data, you will write it up as part of your thesis, dissertation , or research paper .

In the methodology section, you describe exactly how you conducted the survey. You should explain the types of questions you used, the sampling method, when and where the survey took place, and the response rate. You can include the full questionnaire as an appendix and refer to it in the text if relevant.

Then introduce the analysis by describing how you prepared the data and the statistical methods you used to analyse it. In the results section, you summarise the key results from your analysis.

A Likert scale is a rating scale that quantitatively assesses opinions, attitudes, or behaviours. It is made up of four or more questions that measure a single attitude or trait when response scores are combined.

To use a Likert scale in a survey , you present participants with Likert-type questions or statements, and a continuum of items, usually with five or seven possible responses, to capture their degree of agreement.

Individual Likert-type questions are generally considered ordinal data , because the items have clear rank order, but don’t have an even distribution.

Overall Likert scale scores are sometimes treated as interval data. These scores are considered to have directionality and even spacing between them.

The type of data determines what statistical tests you should use to analyse your data.

A questionnaire is a data collection tool or instrument, while a survey is an overarching research method that involves collecting and analysing data from people using questionnaires.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

McCombes, S. (2022, October 10). Doing Survey Research | A Step-by-Step Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 29 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/research-methods/surveys/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, qualitative vs quantitative research | examples & methods, construct validity | definition, types, & examples, what is a likert scale | guide & examples.

Table of Contents

Ai, ethics & human agency, collaboration, information literacy, writing process, survey research, develop knowledge that is otherwise unavailable by developing an effective survey..

Surveys are a series of questions, which are usually presented in questionnaire format. Surveys can be distributed face-to-face, over the phone, or over the Internet.

Developing, Designing, and Distributing Surveys

Surveys are usually developed to obtain information that is otherwise unavailable. For example, suppose you feel that nationwide statistics on college-age drinking or cheating fail to adequately represent life on your campus. You could then develop a survey to demonstrate (or not demonstrate) your point of view.

Note: This section presents detailed instructions for developing, designing, and distributing surveys. Because English teachers are primarily concerned with how your survey is written, they may encourage you not to worry about some of the design issues addressed below, such as census, random, and stratified census sampling procedures

Determine your survey design by creating questions with your purpose and audience in mind.

To develop a credible survey, you must first organize a systematic approach to your study. This involves insuring your study sample actually represents the population of interest. For example, if you were conducting a survey of whether or not college students ever plagiarized or cheated on a test, you would not want to submit your survey to teachers or parents; you would want to hear from college students. A well-designed survey will reduce the chances of this type of misuse of the data.

Ask the Right Questions

Surveys most commonly take the form of a questionnaire. However, a questionnaire is not just a collection of questions, it is a set of questions focused on a particular objective or set of objectives. Defining objectives simply demonstrates you know what you are doing before you do it. If you have selected a topic like “The education of the 20-year-old,” you would most likely need to narrow the topic before designing your survey. One way to narrow the topic is to consider the when question. When does the education of the 20-year-old interest us? It could be cave people, residents of Europe during the plagues, or some time in the 20th century. Take your choice, but the application of a single survey to cover all the periods of time is highly unlikely.

Limit the Survey

Limit your focus by restricting a geographical region. You may want to survey 20-year-olds who live within 1,000 miles of the North Pole, or only those who live in Palaski County, Missouri. By establishing a geographical target population you can expect reasonable closure. If you wanted to interview all the subjects in your original category (the education of 20-year-olds), you may never get around to writing your report. Another factor that influences your survey is the extent to which you want to examine your population. Do you want to look at all the 20-year-old-students or can you focus on a specific subgroup (such as 20-year-old-students in trade schools or 2-year vs. 4-year colleges or, perhaps, the 20-year-old-students who are self-directed learners attending no formal institution)? What do you want to know about these people anyway? Are you interested in how they learn, why they learn, what they learn or perhaps, how much they spend?

Define Objectives

Ask yourself: What am I going to do with the information once it is revealed? You may plan to simply report your findings, make comparisons with other information or take the results of your survey to support or reject a whole new social theory. All these considerations should be met before beginning your survey research. A well-defined set of objectives eases the burden on the researcher.

Create a Survey Instrument

Learn to write effective survey questions..

After defining the population, surveyors need to create an instrument if a proven survey instrument does not exist. As discussed in more detail below, survey creation parallels the computer axiom “GIGO”–Garbage In—Garbage Out. A well-designed, accurate survey is an excellent way for researchers to gather information or data about a particular subject of interest. When prepared in an unprofessional manner, surveys can also become an inaccurate, misused, misunderstood conveyer of misinformation. If a researcher has developed an idea or hypothesis and seeks information only to prove that the idea is correct, the process, the ethics, the motivation, and the very essence of the researcher are worthy of rigorous challenge and should, most likely, be rejected.

Writing Survey Questions

A survey is more than a list of questions. Not only should each question relate to a specific part of your objectives, but each question should be written in a concise and precise manner, and the survey population must be able to understand what is being asked.

There are four common question formats, as discussed in detail below.

Demographic Questions

Demographic questions attempt to identify the characteristics of the population or sample completing the survey.

Your English instructors do not expect you to generalize from a small sample to a larger population, so your sample does not need to reflect characteristics in the overall population. However, you will need to talk meaningfully about your sample, so you will want to describe the characteristics of your respondents as specifically as possible. The kinds of characteristics you should identify are determined largely by the purpose of your research. Gender, income, age, and level of education are examples of the sort of demographic characteristics that you may want to account for in your survey.

Demographic Example:

Circle One : Male or Female?

Closed Questions

With the closed question, the survey provides responses and the subject selects the one that is most appropriate. When constructing closed questions, you need to provide choices that will allow you to make meaningful interpretations.

Closed questions allow the researcher to deal with the responses in a more efficient manner than open ended questions. Both forms of questions can produce similar information.

Closed Question Example:

How often do you study?

a. less than 6 hours a week

b. 6-10 hours a week

b. 11-15 hours a week

c. more than 15 hours a week

The closed question allows for greater uniformity of response, and the categories can be easily matched to the areas of interest by the researcher. Whether you select one type or a combination of questions for your survey, each question must be clear, unambiguous, and relate to a specific item in your objectives.

A common error is to create a double-barreled question such as, “Do you walk to school or carry your lunch?” Clearly, this question is attempting to ask two different things and a simple yes or no response won’t really answer the question. The original question should be rewritten as two questions: “Do you walk to school?” “Do you carry your lunch?” Now the respondent can provide you useful data.

Rank-Ordered Questions

When your library research has informed you that your audience is likely to be concerned about several issues, you can determine which concern is most troubling by asking a rank-ordered question. Essentially, as illustrated by the following example, the rank-order question presents respondents with several alternatives and requests that they rank them according to priority:

Rank-Ordered Question:

Please rank your five most important reasons for not contributing to our company’s blood drives. Put a #1 by your most important concern, a #2 by your second most important concern, and so forth.

_____ Lack of time _____ Lack of awareness of former blood drives _____ Perception that the blood bank has plenty of blood _____ Concern about possible pain _____ Concern about infection _____ Concern about fainting _____ Concern about vomiting _____ Concern about bruising _____ Concern about being infected with AIDS _____ Belief company should provide some compensation

Open Questions

An open question requires respondents to answer in their own words, like a short-answer or essay type response. Open questions allow for free-flowing responses and are less restrictive than the closed questions. If you are going to use an open-ended question format for mailed surveys, don’t expect a high response rate. People seem more inclined to circle or mark a response than to write a lengthy response.

Open Question Example:

(Ans)_________________________________

Because open-ended commentaries can enrich your interpretation of the statistics, you would be wise to include a few such questions in all surveys that you conduct. One generic question that you might find useful is “What important item(s) has/have been left out of this survey?” However, because they are difficult to tabulate and because they require time on the part of your respondents, be sure to limit the number of open-ended questions you ask.

How Many Questions?

Of course, when you are freewriting possible questions, you should attempt to generate as many questions as possible. You might also ask friends and colleagues what questions they would ask if pursuing your topic. Consider using questions that other researchers have asked, and base additional questions on the sources you have consulted to develop an informed survey. Ultimately, however, you will need to limit the questions so that you have a better chance of getting the surveys back. Before submitting your survey to your targeted sample, ask a few people to take it and time how long it takes them to complete it. Many people are willing to give 15 minutes to a survey, yet find a survey that takes more than 30 minutes intolerable.

Formatting Guidelines

Your questionnaire should be prepared so that someone will read it and respond. Try to make this process as easy as possible for the respondent. Make the questionnaire look like a questionnaire. Have it neatly organized, with questions in a logical sequence, numbering each question and page. If you mix open-and closed-ended questions, put the open-ended questions at the end of the questionnaire. An open-ended response is more threatening than a “select a, b, c, or d” response. Keep your questionnaire focused and as short as possible. Each page added reduces the number of potential respondents who will complete the survey.

Sample the Population

Understand the basics of census and random sampling techniques..

A critical step in survey research involves sampling the population. Now that you have narrowed your objectives to something achievable, who are you going to sample? For many, this is a rather simple step: Ask the people who are able to answer your questions! If you want to learn about the educational perceptions of 20-year-olds, ask them. If you want to learn about the parental perceptions of the education of 20-year-olds, ask the parents.

Since data collection involving humans can raise legal, ethical, and moral issues, if you chose to survey the 20-year-olds on a particular college campus, find out what procedures are required before distributing your questionnaire or conducting interviews (see Informed Consent).

• Surveys and questionnaires may be presented:
• In paper format.
• Over the phone.
• Face to face.
• Online, perhaps with results viewable in real time.

Census Sample

A researcher may elect to include all the subjects within the population of interest, otherwise known as a census sample. If one is investigating a particular group of people, such as students enrolled in Composition 1 at 8:00 on Monday morning at a particular university, one would survey all the members of the class. The investigation of all the class members is referred to as a census sample.

Random Sample

If you are seeking information about a statewide issue, you would not attempt to interview everyone in the state. Information is still available if you use a technique that allows a sample from the population of interest to represent the population as a whole. A common technique is to employ the random sample. Random sampling implies that each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected in the sample from the population. As a general rule, the higher the sample size the higher the representativeness. The more representativeness you have in the sample, the more it tends to “look like” the population you are studying. Further study in sampling techniques will show how sample size can be determined to afford the researcher a particular level of confidence in the research outcomes.

Random Sample Techniques

Simple random samples may be made using a variety of techniques. One of the most common techniques is the use of a random number table (see Table 1). If you wanted to select 15 people from a classroom of 60 students, begin by obtaining a class roster of all the students. Assign each student a number from 1 – 60. Now we can use the table. Select a row and column. Any row/ column can serve as a starting point. For instance, if you select row 5, column 7 as your starting point, look at the first two digits (34). This number falls within your population range (1 – 60) and therefore can be used as the first of your required 15 people to be selected. Continue down the column. The next number is 68, but that is outside your range, so you should simply skip it and go to the next number, which is 47. When column 7 is exhausted, go to columns 8, 9, and 10 and if you haven’t accomplished your sample of 15, go to column 1 and continue. Note that column 9, rows 2 and 4 repeat the number 60. Since you have selected 60 the first time, simply skip the second and subsequent times. Using this technique, the 15 people from your class size of 60 are represented by numbers 34, 47, 32, 29, 33, 08, 25, 05, 41, 60, 03, 38, 16, 15, and 28. You have just accomplished a simple random sample. As with many things, once you become familiar with the technique, it is often easier to accomplish than to explain.

Table 1—TABLE OF RANDOM NUMBERS

Stratified-Random Sample

Another method of random sampling is called a stratified-random sample . For instance, one may look at the national census for a particular city or state. By applying percentages of age, ethnicity, or gender within the survey design, the researcher is able to gain representativeness within the survey. If the population of a city under study has a population that is 10% Afro-American, 10% Hispanic, 70% Caucasian, and 10% of other ethnic origins, then the researcher would insure the sample of the population contained 10% Afro-American, 10% Hispanic, and so on. The key to random-stratified sampling is to place the population into various categories, called strata, such as age, gender, ethnicity, income, etc. Then select individuals at random from each category. This technique can be used to identify a highly representative sample using a smaller sample size than a purely random sample.

Transmit the Survey

For the mailed survey there are several tactics you can employ to increase the response rate. Write a letter of transmittal stating the purpose and importance of the study, the reason why the individual was selected to participate, insurance of confidentiality, and an offer of thanks for the individual’s participation. If a separate letter is not appropriate, then consider a survey coversheet that contains similar information. Another technique is to send out a mailing informing intended participants that a questionnaire is forthcoming. Advance notification informing individuals they have been selected for your survey may also spark supportive interest.

Sending the Survey and Following Up

Always pick a date for respondents to reply, and be sure that date is at least a few weeks after the survey is mailed. Otherwise you’ll spend most of your time waiting for a response that will never come. About two weeks after your initial mailing, send a follow-up letter. In the letter thank those who have responded and indicate the necessity of obtaining outstanding surveys. Sometimes a statement like “If you have lost the original survey, please contact (researcher’s name, address, phone/fax number) and a new survey will be sent immediately” may also be helpful.

How many follow-ups are required?

That number is up to the researcher. If you can complete your research with a 20% response rate and your sample represents the population from which it is drawn, then don’t follow up. Do be prepared to explain in your report why you stopped. Some researchers will attempt as many as three times to gain subject participation. Given that you have had a particular number of responses now, ask yourself, “Would my results be different if everyone responded?” If you had a 90% initial response, it is unlikely that the remaining 10% would disrupt your findings. If the initial response was only 10%, then you have a considerable amount of work ahead of you.

Brevity - Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence - How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow - How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity - Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style - The DNA of Powerful Writing

Suggested Edits

• Please select the purpose of your message. * - Corrections, Typos, or Edits Technical Support/Problems using the site Advertising with Writing Commons Copyright Issues I am contacting you about something else
• Your full name
• Your email address *
• Page URL needing edits *
• Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Other Topics:

Citation - Definition - Introduction to Citation in Academic & Professional Writing

• Joseph M. Moxley

Explore the different ways to cite sources in academic and professional writing, including in-text (Parenthetical), numerical, and note citations.

Collaboration - What is the Role of Collaboration in Academic & Professional Writing?

Collaboration refers to the act of working with others or AI to solve problems, coauthor texts, and develop products and services. Collaboration is a highly prized workplace competency in academic...

Genre may reference a type of writing, art, or musical composition; socially-agreed upon expectations about how writers and speakers should respond to particular rhetorical situations; the cultural values; the epistemological assumptions...

Grammar refers to the rules that inform how people and discourse communities use language (e.g., written or spoken English, body language, or visual language) to communicate. Learn about the rhetorical...

Information Literacy - Discerning Quality Information from Noise

Information Literacy refers to the competencies associated with locating, evaluating, using, and archiving information. In order to thrive, much less survive in a global information economy — an economy where information functions as a...

Mindset refers to a person or community’s way of feeling, thinking, and acting about a topic. The mindsets you hold, consciously or subconsciously, shape how you feel, think, and act–and...

Rhetoric: Exploring Its Definition and Impact on Modern Communication

Learn about rhetoric and rhetorical practices (e.g., rhetorical analysis, rhetorical reasoning,  rhetorical situation, and rhetorical stance) so that you can strategically manage how you compose and subsequently produce a text...

Style, most simply, refers to how you say something as opposed to what you say. The style of your writing matters because audiences are unlikely to read your work or...

The Writing Process - Research on Composing

The writing process refers to everything you do in order to complete a writing project. Over the last six decades, researchers have studied and theorized about how writers go about...

Writing Studies

Writing studies refers to an interdisciplinary community of scholars and researchers who study writing. Writing studies also refers to an academic, interdisciplinary discipline – a subject of study. Students in...

Featured Articles

Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community

Professional Writing – How to Write for the Professional World

Credibility & Authority – How to Be Credible & Authoritative in Speech & Writing

Conducting Survey Research

Surveys represent one of the most common types of quantitative, social science research. In survey research, the researcher selects a sample of respondents from a population and administers a standardized questionnaire to them. The questionnaire, or survey, can be a written document that is completed by the person being surveyed, an online questionnaire, a face-to-face interview, or a telephone interview. Using surveys, it is possible to collect data from large or small populations (sometimes referred to as the universe of a study).

Different types of surveys are actually composed of several research techniques, developed by a variety of disciplines. For instance, interview began as a tool primarily for psychologists and anthropologists, while sampling got its start in the field of agricultural economics (Angus and Katona, 1953, p. 15).

Survey research does not belong to any one field and it can be employed by almost any discipline. According to Angus and Katona, "It is this capacity for wide application and broad coverage which gives the survey technique its great usefulness..." (p. 16).

Types of Surveys

Surveys come in a wide range of forms and can be distributed using a variety of media.

Mail Surveys

Group administered questionnaires, drop-off surveys, oral surveys, electronic surveys.

• An Example Survey

Example Survey

General Instructions: We are interested in your writing and computing experiences and attitudes. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey. In general, when you are presented with a scale next to a question, please put an X over the number that best corresponds to your answer. For example, if you strongly agreed with the following question, you might put an X through the number 5. If you agreed moderately, you might put an X through number 4, if you neither agreed nor disagreed, you might put an X through number 3.

Example Question:

As is the case with all of the information we are collecting for our study, we will keep all the information you provide to us completely confidential. Your teacher will not be made aware of any of your responses. Thanks for your help.

Your Name: ___________________________________________________________

Your Instructor's Name: __________________________________________________

Written Surveys

Imagine that you are interested in exploring the attitudes college students have about writing. Since it would be impossible to interview every student on campus, choosing the mail-out survey as your method would enable you to choose a large sample of college students. You might choose to limit your research to your own college or university, or you might extend your survey to several different institutions. If your research question demands it, the mail survey allows you to sample a very broad group of subjects at small cost.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Mail Surveys

Cost: Mail surveys are low in cost compared to other methods of surveying. This type of survey can cost up to 50% less than the self-administered survey, and almost 75% less than a face-to-face survey (Bourque and Fielder 9). Mail surveys are also substantially less expensive than drop-off and group-administered surveys.

Convenience: Since many of these types of surveys are conducted through a mail-in process, the participants are able to work on the surveys at their leisure.

Bias: Because the mail survey does not allow for personal contact between the researcher and the respondent, there is little chance for personal bias based on first impressions to alter the responses to the survey. This is an advantage because if the interviewer is not likeable, the survey results will be unfavorably affected. However, this could be a disadvantage as well.

Sampling--internal link: It is possible to reach a greater population and have a larger universe (sample of respondents) with this type of survey because it does not require personal contact between the researcher and the respondents.

Low Response Rate: One of the biggest drawbacks to written survey, especially as it relates to the mail-in, self-administered method, is the low response rate. Compared to a telephone survey or a face-to-face survey, the mail-in written survey has a response rate of just over 20%.

Ability of Respondent to Answer Survey: Another problem with self-administered surveys is three-fold: assumptions about the physical ability, literacy level and language ability of the respondents. Because most surveys pull the participants from a random sampling, it is impossible to control for such variables. Many of those who belong to a survey group have a different primary language than that of the survey. They may also be illiterate or have a low reading level and therefore might not be able to accurately answer the questions. Along those same lines, persons with conditions that cause them to have trouble reading, such as dyslexia, visual impairment or old age, may not have the capabilities necessary to complete the survey.

Imagine that you are interested in finding out how instructors who teach composition in computer classrooms at your university feel about the advantages of teaching in a computer classroom over a traditional classroom. You have a very specific population in mind, and so a mail-out survey would probably not be your best option. You might try an oral survey, but if you are doing this research alone this might be too time consuming. The group administered questionnaire would allow you to get your survey results in one space of time and would ensure a very high response rate (higher than if you stuck a survey into each instructor's mailbox). Your challenge would be to get everyone together. Perhaps your department holds monthly technology support meetings that most of your chosen sample would attend. Your challenge at this point would be to get permission to use part of the weekly meeting time to administer the survey, or to convince the instructors to stay to fill it out after the meeting. Despite the challenges, this type of survey might be the most efficient for your specific purposes.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Group Administered Questionnaires

Rate of Response: This second type of written survey is generally administered to a sample of respondents in a group setting, guaranteeing a high response rate.

Specificity: This type of written survey can be very versatile, allowing for a spectrum of open and closed ended types of questions and can serve a variety of specific purposes, particularly if you are trying to survey a very specific group of people.

Weaknesses of Group Administered Questionnaires

Sampling: This method requires a small sample, and as a result is not the best method for surveys that would benefit from a large sample. This method is only useful in cases that call for very specific information from specific groups.

Scheduling: Since this method requires a group of respondents to answer the survey together, this method requires a slot of time that is convenient for all respondents.

Imagine that you would like to find out about how the dorm dwellers at your university feel about the lack of availability of vegetarian cuisine in their dorm dining halls. You have prepared a questionnaire that requires quite a few long answers, and since you suspect that the students in the dorms may not have the motivation to take the time to respond, you might want a chance to tell them about your research, the benefits that might come from their responses, and to answer their questions about your survey. To ensure the highest response rate, you would probably pick a time of the day when you are sure that the majority of the dorm residents are home, and then work your way from door to door. If you don't have time to interview the number of students you need in your sample, but you don't trust the response rate of mail surveys, the drop-off survey might be the best option for you.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Drop-off Surveys

Convenience: Like the mail survey, the drop-off survey allows the respondents to answer the survey at their own convenience.

Response Rates: The response rates for the drop-off survey are better than the mail survey because it allows the interviewer to make personal contact with the respondent, to explain the importance of the survey, and to answer any questions or concerns the respondent might have.

Time: Because of the personal contact this method requires, this method takes considerably more time than the mail survey.

Sampling: Because of the time it takes to make personal contact with the respondents, the universe of this kind of survey will be considerably smaller than the mail survey pool of respondents.

Response: The response rate for this type of survey, although considerably better than the mail survey, is still not as high as the response rate you will achieve with an oral survey.

Oral surveys are considered more personal forms of survey than the written or electronic methods. Oral surveys are generally used to get thorough opinions and impressions from the respondents.

Oral surveys can be administered in several different ways. For instance, in a group interview, as opposed to a group administered written survey, each respondent is not given an instrument (an individual questionnaire). Instead, the respondents work in groups to answer the questions together while one person takes notes for the whole group. Another more familiar form of oral survey is the phone survey. Phone surveys can be used to get short one word answers (yes/no), as well as longer answers.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Oral Surveys

Personal Contact: Oral surveys conducted either on the telephone or in person give the interviewer the ability to answer questions from the participant. If the participant, for example, does not understand a question or needs further explanation on a particular issue, it is possible to converse with the participant. According to Glastonbury and MacKean, "interviewing offers the flexibility to react to the respondent's situation, probe for more detail, seek more reflective replies and ask questions which are complex or personally intrusive" (p. 228).

Response Rate: Although obtaining a certain number of respondents who are willing to take the time to do an interview is difficult, the researcher has more control over the response rate in oral survey research than with other types of survey research. As opposed to mail surveys where the researcher must wait to see how many respondents actually answer and send back the survey, a researcher using oral surveys can, if the time and money are available, interview respondents until the required sample has been achieved.

Cost: The most obvious disadvantage of face-to-face and telephone survey is the cost. It takes time to collect enough data for a complete survey, and time translates into payroll costs and sometimes payment for the participants.

Bias: Using face-to-face interview for your survey may also introduce bias, from either the interviewer or the interviewee.

Types of Questions Possible: Certain types of questions are not convenient for this type of survey, particularly for phone surveys where the respondent does not have a chance to look at the questionnaire. For instance, if you want to offer the respondent a choice of 5 different answers, it will be very difficult for respondents to remember all of the choices, as well as the question, without a visual reminder. This problem requires the researcher to take special care in constructing questions to be read aloud.

Attitude: Anyone who has ever been interrupted during dinner by a phone interviewer is aware of the negative feelings many people have about answering a phone survey. Upon receiving these calls, many potential respondents will simply hang up.

With the growth of the Internet (and in particular the World Wide Web) and the expanded use of electronic mail for business communication, the electronic survey is becoming a more widely used survey method. Electronic surveys can take many forms. They can be distributed as electronic mail messages sent to potential respondents. They can be posted as World Wide Web forms on the Internet. And they can be distributed via publicly available computers in high-traffic areas such as libraries and shopping malls. In many cases, electronic surveys are placed on laptops and respondents fill out a survey on a laptop computer rather than on paper.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Electronic Surveys

Cost-savings: It is less expensive to send questionnaires online than to pay for postage or for interviewers.

Ease of Editing/Analysis: It is easier to make changes to questionnaire, and to copy and sort data.

Faster Transmission Time: Questionnaires can be delivered to recipients in seconds, rather than in days as with traditional mail.

Easy Use of Preletters: You may send invitations and receive responses in a very short time and thus receive participation level estimates.

Higher Response Rate: Research shows that response rates on private networks are higher with electronic surveys than with paper surveys or interviews.

More Candid Responses: Research shows that respondents may answer more honestly with electronic surveys than with paper surveys or interviews.

Potentially Quicker Response Time with Wider Magnitude of Coverage: Due to the speed of online networks, participants can answer in minutes or hours, and coverage can be global.

Sample Demographic Limitations: Population and sample limited to those with access to computer and online network.

Lower Levels of Confidentiality: Due to the open nature of most online networks, it is difficult to guarantee anonymity and confidentiality.

Layout and Presentation issues: Constructing the format of a computer questionnaire can be more difficult the first few times, due to a researcher's lack of experience.

Additional Orientation/Instructions: More instruction and orientation to the computer online systems may be necessary for respondents to complete the questionnaire.

Potential Technical Problems with Hardware and Software: As most of us (perhaps all of us) know all too well, computers have a much greater likelihood of "glitches" than oral or written forms of communication.

Response Rate: Even though research shows that e-mail response rates are higher, Opermann (1995) warns that most of these studies found response rates higher only during the first few days; thereafter, the rates were not significantly higher.

Designing Surveys

Initial planning of the survey design and survey questions is extremely important in conducting survey research. Once surveying has begun, it is difficult or impossible to adjust the basic research questions under consideration or the tool used to address them since the instrument must remain stable in order to standardize the data set. This section provides information needed to construct an instrument that will satisfy basic validity and reliability issues. It also offers information about the important decisions you need to make concerning the types of questions you are going to use, as well as the content, wording, order and format of your survey questionnaire.

Overall Design Issues

Four key issues should be considered when designing a survey or questionnaire: respondent attitude, the nature of the items (or questions) on the survey, the cost of conducting the survey, and the suitability of the survey to your research questions.

Respondent attitude: When developing your survey instrument, it is important to try to put yourself into your target population's shoes. Think about how you might react when approached by a pollster while out shopping or when receiving a phone call from a pollster while you are sitting down to dinner. Think about how easy it is to throw away a response survey that you've received in the mail. When developing your instrument, it is important to choose the method you think will work for your research, but also one in which you have confidence. Ask yourself what kind of survey you, as a respondent, would be most apt to answer.

Nature of questions: It is important to consider the relationship between the medium that you use and the questions that you ask. For instance, certain types of questions are difficult to answer over the telephone. Think of the problems you would have in attempting to record Likert scale responses, as in closed-ended questions, over the telephone--especially if a scale of more than five points is used. Responses to open-ended questions would also be difficult to record and report in telephone interviews.

Cost: Along with decisions about the nature of the questions you ask, expense issues also enter into your decision making when planning a survey. The population under consideration, the geographic distribution of this sample population, and the type of questionnaire used all affect costs.

Ability of instrument to meet needs of research question: Finally, there needs to be a logical link between your survey instrument and your research questions. If it is important to get a large number of responses from a broad sample of the population, you obviously will not choose to do a drop-off written survey or an in-person oral survey. Because of the size of the needed sample, you will need to choose a survey instrument that meets this need, such as a phone or mail survey. If you are interested in getting thorough information that might need a large amount of interaction between the interviewer and respondent, you will probably pick in-person oral survey with a smaller sample of respondents. Your questions, then, will need to reflect both your research goals and your choice of medium.

Creating Questionnaire Questions

Developing well-crafted questionnaires is more difficult than it might seem. Researchers should carefully consider the type, content, wording, and order of the questions that they include. In this section, we discuss the steps involved in questionnaire development and the advantages and disadvantages of various techniques.

Open-ended vs. Closed-ended Questions

All researchers must make two basic decisions when designing a survey--they must decide: 1) whether they are going to employ an oral, written, or electronic method, and 2) whether they are going to choose questions that are open or close-ended.

Closed-Ended Questions: Closed-ended questions limit respondents' answers to the survey. The participants are allowed to choose from either a pre-existing set of dichotomous answers, such as yes/no, true/false, or multiple choice with an option for "other" to be filled in, or ranking scale response options. The most common of the ranking scale questions is called the Likert scale question. This kind of question asks the respondents to look at a statement (such as "The most important education issue facing our nation in the year 2000 is that all third graders should be able to read") and then "rank" this statement according to the degree to which they agree ("I strongly agree, I somewhat agree, I have no opinion, I somewhat disagree, I strongly disagree").

Open-Ended Questions: Open-ended questions do not give respondents answers to choose from, but rather are phrased so that the respondents are encouraged to explain their answers and reactions to the question with a sentence, a paragraph, or even a page or more, depending on the survey. If you wish to find information on the same topic as asked above (the future of elementary education), but would like to find out what respondents would come up with on their own, you might choose an open-ended question like "What do you think is the most important educational issue facing our nation in the year 2000?" rather than the Likert scale question. Or, if you would like to focus on reading as the topic, but would still not like to limit the participants' responses, you might pose the question this way: "Do you think that the most important issue facing education is literacy? Explain your answer below."

Note: Keep in mind that you do not have to use close-ended or open-ended questions exclusively. Many researchers use a combination of closed and open questions; often researchers use close-ended questions in the beginning of their survey, then allow for more expansive answers once the respondent has some background on the issue and is "warmed-up."

Rating scales: ask respondents to rate something like an idea, concept, individual, program, product, etc. based on a closed ended scale format, usually on a five-point scale. For example, a Likert scale presents respondents with a series of statements rather than questions, and the respondents are asked to which degree they disagree or agree.

Ranking scales: ask respondents to rank a set of ideas or things, etc. For example, a researcher can provide respondents with a list of ice cream flavors, and then ask them to rank these flavors in order of which they like best, with the rank of "one" representing their favorite. These are more difficult to use than rating scales. They will take more time, and they cannot easily be used for phone surveys since they often require visual aids. However, since ranking scales are more difficult, they may actually increase appropriate effort from respondents.

Magnitude estimation scales: ask respondents to provide numeric estimation of answers. For example, respondents might be asked: "Since your least favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla, we'll give it a score of 10. If you like another ice cream 20 times more than vanilla, you'll give it a score of 200, and so on. So, compared to vanilla at a score of ten, how much do you like rocky road?" These scales are obviously very difficult for respondents. However, these scales have been found to help increase variance explanations over ordinal scaling.

Split or unfolding questions: begin by asking respondents a general question, and then follow up with clarifying questions.

Funneling questions: guide respondents through complex issues or concepts by using a series of questions that progressively narrow to a specific question. For example, researchers can start asking general, open-ended questions, and then move to asking specific, closed-ended, forced-choice questions.

Inverted funneling questions: ask respondents a series of questions that move from specific issues to more general issues. For example, researchers can ask respondents specific, closed-ended questions first and then ask more general, open-ended questions. This technique works well when respondents are not expected to be knowledgeable about a content area or when they are not expected to have an articulate opinion regarding an issue.

Factorial questions: use stories or vignettes to study judgment and decision-making processes. For example, a researcher could ask respondents: "You're in a dangerous, rapidly burning building. Do you exit the building immediately or go upstairs to wake up the other inhabitants?" Converse and Presser (1986) warn that little is known about how this survey question technique compares with other techniques.

The wording of survey questions is a tricky endeavor. It is difficult to develop shared meanings or definitions between researchers and the respondents, and among respondents.

In The Practice of Social Research , Keith Crew, a professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky, cites a famous example of a survey gone awry because of wording problems. An interview survey that included Likert-type questions ranging from "very much" to "very little" was given in a small rural town. Although it would seem that these items would accurately record most respondents' opinions, in the colloquial language of the region the word "very" apparently has an idiomatic usage which is closer to what we mean by "fairly" or even "poorly." You can just imagine what this difference in definition did to the survey results (p. 271).

This, however, is an extreme case. Even small changes in wording can shift the answers of many respondents. The best thing researchers can do to avoid problems with wording is to pretest their questions. However, researchers can also follow some suggestions to help them write more effective survey questions.

To write effective questions, researchers need to keep in mind these four important techniques: directness, simplicity, specificity, and discreteness.

• Questions should be written in a straightforward, direct language that is not caught up in complex rhetoric or syntax, or in a discipline's slang or lingo. Questions should be specifically tailored for a group of respondents.
• Questions should be kept short and simple. Respondents should not be expected to learn new, complex information in order to answer questions.
• Specific questions are for the most part better than general ones. Research shows that the more general a question is the wider the range of interpretation among respondents. To keep specific questions brief, researchers can sometimes use longer introductions that make the context, background, and purpose of the survey clear so that this information is not necessary to include in the actual questions.
• Avoid questions that are overly personal or direct, especially when dealing with sensitive issues.

When considering the content of your questionnaire, obviously the most important consideration is whether the content of the questions will elicit the kinds of questions necessary to answer your initial research question. You can gauge the appropriateness of your questions by pretesting your survey, but you should also consider the following questions as you are creating your initial questionnaire:

• Does your choice of open or close-ended questions lead to the types of answers you would like to get from your respondents?
• Is every question in your survey integral to your intent? Superfluous questions that have already been addressed or are not relevant to your study will waste the time of both the respondents and the researcher.
• Does one topic warrant more than one question?
• Do you give enough prior information/context for each set of questions? Sometimes lead-in questions are useful to help the respondent become familiar and comfortable with the topic.
• Are the questions both general enough (they are both standardized and relevant to your entire sample), and specific enough (avoid vague generalizations and ambiguousness)?
• Is each question as succinct as it can be without leaving out essential information?
• Finally, and most importantly, try to put yourself in your respondents' shoes. Write a survey that you would be willing to answer yourself, and be polite, courteous, and sensitive. Thank the responder for participating both at the beginning and the end of the survey.

Order of Questions

Although there are no general rules for ordering survey questions, there are still a few suggestions researchers can follow when setting up a questionnaire.

• Pretesting can help determine if the ordering of questions is effective.
• Which topics should start the survey off, and which should wait until the end of the survey?
• What kind of preparation do my respondents need for each question?
• Do the questions move logically from one to the next, and do the topics lead up to each other?

The following general guidelines for ordering survey questions can address these questions:

• Use warm-up questions. Easier questions will ease the respondent into the survey and will set the tone and the topic of the survey.
• Sensitive questions should not appear at the beginning of the survey. Try to put the responder at ease before addressing uncomfortable issues. You may also prepare the reader for these sensitive questions with some sort of written preface.
• Consider transition questions that make logical links.
• Try not to mix topics. Topics can easily be placed into "sets" of questions.
• Try not to put the most important questions last. Respondents may become bored or tired before they get to the end of the survey.
• Be careful with contingency questions ("If you answered yes to the previous question . . . etc.").
• If you are using a combination of open and close-ended questions, try not to start your survey with open-ended questions. Respondents will be more likely to answer the survey if they are allowed the ease of closed-questions first.

Borrowing Questions

Before developing a survey questionnaire, Converse and Presser (1986) recommend that researchers consult published compilations of survey questions, like those published by the National Opinion Research Center and the Gallup Poll. This will not only give you some ideas on how to develop your questionnaire, but you can even borrow questions from surveys that reflect your own research. Since these questions and questionnaires have already been tested and used effectively, you will save both time and effort. However, you will need to take care to only use questions that are relevant to your study, and you will usually have to develop some questions on your own.

Advantages of Closed-Ended Questions

• Closed-ended questions are more easily analyzed. Every answer can be given a number or value so that a statistical interpretation can be assessed. Closed-ended questions are also better suited for computer analysis. If open-ended questions are analyzed quantitatively, the qualitative information is reduced to coding and answers tend to lose some of their initial meaning. Because of the simplicity of closed-ended questions, this kind of loss is not a problem.
• Closed-ended questions can be more specific, thus more likely to communicate similar meanings. Because open-ended questions allow respondents to use their own words, it is difficult to compare the meanings of the responses.
• In large-scale surveys, closed-ended questions take less time from the interviewer, the participant and the researcher, and so is a less expensive survey method. The response rate is higher with surveys that use closed-ended question than with those that use open-ended questions.

Advantages of Open-Ended Questions

• Open-ended questions allow respondents to include more information, including feelings, attitudes and understanding of the subject. This allows researchers to better access the respondents' true feelings on an issue. Closed-ended questions, because of the simplicity and limit of the answers, may not offer the respondents choices that actually reflect their real feelings. Closed-ended questions also do not allow the respondent to explain that they do not understand the question or do not have an opinion on the issue.
• Open-ended questions cut down on two types of response error; respondents are not likely to forget the answers they have to choose from if they are given the chance to respond freely, and open-ended questions simply do not allow respondents to disregard reading the questions and just "fill in" the survey with all the same answers (such as filling in the "no" box on every question).
• Because they allow for obtaining extra information from the respondent, such as demographic information (current employment, age, gender, etc.), surveys that use open-ended questions can be used more readily for secondary analysis by other researchers than can surveys that do not provide contextual information about the survey population.

Potential Problems with Survey Questions

While designing questions for a survey, researchers should to be aware of a few problems and how to avoid them:

"Everyone has an opinion": It is incorrect to assume that each respondent has an opinion regarding every question. Therefore, you might offer a "no opinion" option to avoid this assumption. Filters can also be created. For example, researchers can ask respondents if they have any thoughts on an issue, to which they have the option to say "no."

Agree and disagree statements: according to Converse and Presser (1986), these statements suffer from "acquiescence" or the tendency of respondents to agree despite question content (p.35). Researchers can avoid this problem by using forced-choice questions with these statements.

Response order bias: this occurs when a respondent loses track of all options and picks one that comes easily to mind rather than the most accurate. Typically, the respondent chooses the last or first response option. This problem might occur if researchers use long lists and/or rating scales.

Response set: this problem can occur when using a close-ended question format with response options like yes/no or agree/disagree. Sometimes respondents do not consider each question and just answer no or disagree to all questions.

Telescoping: occurs when respondents report that an event took place more recently than it actually did. To avoid this problem, Frey and Mertens (1995) say researchers can use "aided recall"-using a reference point or landmark, or list of events or behaviors (p. 101).

Forward telescoping: occurs when respondents include events that have actually happened before the time frame established. This results in overreporting. According to Converse and Presser (1986), researchers can use "bounded recall" to avoid this problem (p.21). Bounded recall is when researchers interview respondents several months or so after the initial interview to inquire about events that have happened since then. This technique, however, requires more resources. Converse and Presser said that researchers can also just try to narrow the reference points used, which has been shown to reduce this problem too.

Fatigue effect: happens when respondents grow bored or tired during the interview. To avoid this problem, Frey and Mertens (1995) say researchers can use transitions, vary questions and response options, and they can put easy to answer questions at the end of the questionnaire.

Types of Questions to Avoid

• Double-barreled questions- force respondents to make two decisions in one. For example, a question like: "Do you think women and children should be given the first available flu shots?" does not allow the responder to choose whether women or children should be given the first shots.
• Double negative questions-for example: "Please tell me whether or not you agree or disagree with this statement. Graduate teaching assistants should not be required to help students outside of class." Respondents may confuse the meaning of the disagree option.
• Hypothetical questions- are typically too difficult for respondents since they require more scrutiny. For example, "If there were a cure for cancer, would you still support euthanasia?"
• Ambiguous questions- respondents might not understand the question.
• Biased questions- For example, "Don't you think that suffering terminal cancer patients should be allowed to be released from their pain?" Researchers should never try to make one response option look more suitable than another.
• Questions with long lists-these questions may tire respondents or respondents may lose track of the question.

Pretesting the Questionnaire

Ultimately, designing the perfect survey questionnaire is impossible. However, researchers can still create effective surveys. To determine the effectiveness of your survey questionnaire, it is necessary to pretest it before actually using it. Pretesting can help you determine the strengths and weaknesses of your survey concerning question format, wording and order.

There are two types of survey pretests: participating and undeclared .

• Participating pretests dictate that you tell respondents that the pretest is a practice run; rather than asking the respondents to simply fill out the questionnaire, participating pretests usually involve an interview setting where respondents are asked to explain reactions to question form, wording and order. This kind of pretest will help you determine whether the questionnaire is understandable.
• When conducting an undeclared pretest , you do not tell respondents that it is a pretest. The survey is given just as you intend to conduct it for real. This type of pretest allows you to check your choice of analysis and the standardization of your survey. According to Converse and Presser (1986), if researchers have the resources to do more than one pretest, it might be best to use a participatory pretest first, then an undeclared test.

General Applications of Pretesting:

Whether or not you use a participating or undeclared pretest, pretesting should ideally also test specifically for question variation, meaning, task difficulty, and respondent interest and attention. Your pretests should also include any questions you borrowed from other similar surveys, even if they have already been pretested, because meaning can be affected by the particular context of your survey. Researchers can also pretest the following: flow, order, skip patterns, timing, and overall respondent well-being.

Pretesting for reliability and validity:

Researchers might also want to pretest the reliability and validity of the survey questions. To be reliable, a survey question must be answered by respondents the same way each time. According to Weisberg et. al (1989), researchers can assess reliability by comparing the answers respondents give in one pretest with answers in another pretest. Then, a survey question's validity is determined by how well it measures the concept(s) it is intended to measure. Both convergent validity and divergent validity can be determined by first comparing answers to another question measuring the same concept, then by measuring this answer to the participant's response to a question that asks for the exact opposite answer.

For instance, you might include questions in your pretest that explicitly test for validity: if a respondent answers "yes" to the question, "Do you think that the next president should be a Republican?" then you might ask "What party do you think you might vote for in the next presidential election?" to check for convergent validity, then "Do you think that you will vote Democrat in the next election?" to check the answer for divergent validity.

Conducting Surveys

Once you have constructed a questionnaire, you'll need to make a plan that outlines how and to whom you will administer it. There are a number of options available in order to find a relevant sample group amongst your survey population. In addition, there are various considerations involved with administering the survey itself.

Administering a Survey

This section attempts to answer the question: "How do I go about getting my questionnaire answered?"

For all types of surveys, some basic practicalities need to be considered before the surveying begins. For instance, you need to find the most convenient time to carry out the data collection (this becomes particularly important in interview surveying and group-administered surveys), how long the data collection is likely to take. Finally, you need to make practical arrangements for administering the survey. Pretesting your survey will help you determine the time it takes to administer, process, and analyze your survey, and will also help you clear out some of the bugs.

Administering Written Surveys

Written surveys can be handled in several different ways. A research worker can deliver the questionnaires to the homes of the sample respondents, explain the study, and then pick the questionnaires up on a later date (or, alternately, ask the respondent to mail the survey back when completed). Another option is mailing questionnaires directly to homes and having researchers pick up and check the questionnaires for completeness in person. This method has proven to have higher response rates than straightforward mail surveys, although it tends to take more time and money to administer.

It is important to put yourself into the role of respondent when deciding how to administer your survey. Most of us have received and thrown away a mail survey, and so it may be useful to think back to the reasons you had for not filling it out and returning it. Here are some ideas for boosting your response rate:

• Include in each questionnaire a letter of introduction and explanation, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope for returning the questionnaire.
• Oftentimes, when it fits the study's budget, the envelope might also include a monetary "reward" (usually a dollar to five dollars) as an incentive to fill out the survey.
• Another method for saving the responder time is to create a self-mailing questionnaire that requires no envelope but folds easily so that the return address appears on the outside. The easier you make the process of completing and returning the survey, the better your survey results will be.
• Follow up mailings are an important part of administering mail surveys. Nonrespondents can be sent letters of additional encouragement to participate. Even better, a new copy of the survey can be sent to nonresponders. Methodological literature suggests that three follow up letters are adequate, and two to three weeks should be allowed between each mailing.

Administering Oral Surveys

Face-To-Face Surveys

Oftentimes conducting oral surveys requires a staff of interviewers; to control this variable as much as possible, the presentation and preparation of the interviewer is an important consideration.

• In any face-to-face interview, the appearance of the interviewer is important. Since the success of any survey relies on the interest of the participants to respond to the survey, the interviewer should take care to dress and act in such a way that would not offend the general sample population.
• Of equal importance is the preparedness of the interviewer. The interviewer should be well acquainted with the questions, and have ample practice administering the survey with mock interviews. If several interviewers will be used, they should be trained as a group to ensure standardization and control. Interviewers also need to carry a letter of identification/authentication to present at in-person surveys.

When actually administering the survey, you need to make decisions about how much of the participants' responses need to be recorded, how much the interviewer will need to "probe" for responses, and how much the interviewer will need to account for context (what is the respondent's age, race, gender, reaction to the study, etc.) If you are administering a close-ended question survey, these may not be considerations. On the other hand, when recording more open-ended responses, the researcher needs to decide beforehand on each of these factors:

• It depends on the purpose of the study whether the interview should be recorded word for word, or whether the interviewer should record general impressions and opinions. However, for the sake of precision, the former approach is preferred. More information is always better than less when it comes to analyzing the results.
• Sometimes respondents will respond to a question with an inappropriate answer; this can happen with both open and close-question surveys. Even if you give the participant structured choices like "I agree" or "I disagree," they might respond "I think that is true," which might require the interviewer to probe for an appropriate answer. In an open-question survey, this probing becomes more challenging. The interviewer might come with a set of potential questions if the respondent does not elaborate enough or strays from the subject. The nature of these probes, however, need to be constructed by the researcher rather than ad-libbed by the interviewers, and should be carefully controlled so that they do not lead the respondent to change answers.

Phone Surveys

Phone surveys certainly involve all of the preparedness of the face-to-face surveys, but encounter new problems because of their reputation. It is much easier to hang-up on a phone surveyor than it is to slam the door in someone's face, and so the sheer number of calls needed to complete a survey can be baffling. Computer innovation has tempered this problem a bit by allowing more for quick and random number dialing and the ability for interviewers to type answers programs that automatically set up the data for analysis. Systems like CATI (Computer-assisted survey interview) have made phone surveys a more cost and time effective method, and therefore a popular one, although respondents are getting more and more reluctant to answer phone surveys because of the increase in telemarketing.

Before conducting a survey, you must choose a relevant survey population. And, unless a survey population is very small, it is usually impossible to survey the entire relevant population. Therefore, researchers usually just survey a sample of a population from an actual list of the relevant population, which in turn is called a sampling frame . With a carefully selected sample, researchers can make estimations or generalizations regarding an entire population's opinions, attitudes or beliefs on a particular topic.

Sampling Procedures and Methods

There are two different types of sampling procedures-- probability and nonprobability . Probability sampling methods ensure that there is a possibility for each person in a sample population to be selected, whereas nonprobability methods target specific individuals. Nonprobability sampling methods include the following:

• Purposive samples: to purposely select individuals to survey.
• Volunteer subjects: to ask for volunteers to survey.
• Haphazard sampling: to survey individuals who can be easily reached.
• Quota sampling: to select individuals based on a set quota. For example, if a census indicates that more than half of the population is female, then the sample will be adjusted accordingly.

Clearly, there can be an inherent bias in nonprobability methods. Therefore, according to Weisberg, Krosnick, and Bowen (1989), it is not surprising that most survey researchers prefer probability sampling methods. Some commonly used probability sampling methods for surveys are:

• Simple random sample: a sample is drawn randomly from a list of individuals in a population.
• Systematic selection procedure sample: a variant of a simple random sample in which a random number is chosen to select the first individual and so on from there.
• Stratified sample: dividing up the population into smaller groups, and randomly sampling from each group.
• Cluster sample: dividing up a population into smaller groups, and then only sampling from one of the groups. Cluster sampling is " according to Lee, Forthofer, and Lorimer (1989), is considered a more practical approach to surveys because it samples by groups or clusters of elements rather than by individual elements" (p. 12). It also reduces interview costs. However, Weisberg et. al (1989) said accuracy declines when using this sampling method.
• Multistage sampling: first, sampling a set of geographic areas. Then, sampling a subset of areas within those areas, and so on.

Sampling and Nonsampling Errors

Directly related to sample size are the concepts of sampling and nonsampling errors. According to Fox and Tracy (1986), surveys are subject to both sampling errors and nonsampling errors.

A sampling error arises from the fact that inevitably samples differ from their populations. Therefore, survey sample results should be seen only as estimations. Weisberg et. al. (1989) said sampling errors cannot be calculated for nonprobability samples, but they can be determined for probability samples. First, to determine sample error, look at the sample size. Then, look at the sampling fraction--the percentage of the population that is being surveyed. Thus, the more people surveyed, the smaller the error. This error can also be reduced, according to Fox and Tracy (1986), by increasing the representativeness of the sample.

Then, there are two different kinds of nonsampling error--random and nonrandom errors. Fox and Tracy (1986) said random errors decrease the reliability of measurements. These errors can be reduced through repeated measurements. Nonrandom errors result from a bias in survey data, which is connected to response and nonresponse bias.

Confidence Level and Interval

Any statement of sampling error must contain two essential components: the confidence level and the confidence interval. These two components are used together to express the accuracy of the sample's statistics in terms of the level of confidence that the statistics fall within a specified interval from the true population parameter. For example, a researcher may be "95 percent confident" that the sample statistic (that 50 percent favor candidate X) is within plus or minus 5 percentage points of the population parameter. In other words, the researcher is 95 percent confident that between 45 and 55 percent of the total population favor candidate X.

Lauer and Asher (1988) provide a table that gives the confidence interval limits for percentages based upon sample size (p. 58):

Sample Size and Confidence Interval Limits

(95% confidence intervals based on a population incidence of 50% and a large population relative to sample size.)

Confidence Limits and Sample Size

When selecting a sample size, one can consider that a higher number of individuals surveyed from a target group yields a tighter measurement, a lower number yields a looser range of confidence limits. The confidence limits may need to be corrected if, according to Lauer and Asher (1988), "the sample size starts to approach the population size" or if "the variable under scrutiny is known to have a much [original emphasis] smaller or larger occurrence than 50% in the whole population" (p. 59). For smaller populations, Singleton (1988) said the standard error or confidence interval should be multiplied by a correction factor equal to sqrt(1 - f), where "f" is the sampling fraction, or proportion of the population included in the sample.

Lauer and Asher (1988) give a table of correction factors for confidence limits where sample size is an important part of population size (p. 60) and also a table of correction factors for where the percentage incidence of the parameter in the population is not 50% (p. 61).

Tables for Calculating Confidence Limits vs. Sample Size

Correction Factors for Confidence Limits When Sample Size (n) Is an Important Part of Population Size (N >= 100)

(For n over 70% of N, take all of N)

From Lauer and Asher (1988, p. 60)

Correction Factors for Rare and Common Percentage of Variables

From Lauer and Asher (1988, p. 61)

Analyzing Survey Results

After creating and conducting your survey, you must now process and analyze the results. These steps require strict attention to detail and, in some cases, knowledge of statistics and computer software packages. How you conduct these steps will depend on the scope of your study, your own capabilities, and the audience to whom you wish to direct the work.

Processing the Results

It is clearly important to keep careful records of survey data in order to do effective work. Most researchers recommend using a computer to help sort and organize the data. Additionally, Glastonbury and MacKean point out that once the data has been filtered though the computer, it is possible to do an unlimited amount of analysis (p. 243).

Jolliffe (1986) believes that editing should be the first step to processing this data. He writes, "The obvious reason for this is to ensure that the data analyzed are correct and complete . At the same time, editing can reduce the bias, increase the precision and achieve consistency between the tables [regarding those produced by social science computer software] (p. 100). Of course, editing may not always be necessary, if for example you are doing a qualitative analysis of open-ended questions, or the survey is part of a larger project and gets distributed to other agencies for analysis. However, editing could be as simple as checking the information input into the computer.

All of this information should be used to test for statistical significance. See our guide on Statistics for more on this topic.

Information may be recorded in any number of ways. Charts and graphs are clear, visual ways to record findings in many cases. For instance, in a mail-out survey where response rate is an issue, you might use a response rate graph to make the process easier. The day the surveys are mailed out should be recorded first. Then, every day thereafter, the number of returned questionnaires should be logged on the graph. Be sure to record both the number returned each day, and the cumulative number, or percentage. Also, as each completed questionnaire is returned, each should be opened, scanned and assigned an identification number.

Analyzing the Results

Before actually beginning the survey the researcher should know how they want to analyze the data. As stated in the Processing the Results section, if you are collecting quantifiable data, a code book is needed for interpreting your data and should be established prior to collecting the survey data. This is important because there are many different formulas needed in order to properly analyze the survey research and obtain statistical significance. Since computer programs have made the process of analyzing data vastly easier than it was, it would be sensible to choose this route. Be sure to pick your program before you design your survey - - some programs require the data to be laid out in different ways.

After the survey is conducted and the data collected, the results must be assembled in some useable format that allows comparison within the survey group, between groups, or both. The results could be analyzed in a number of ways. A T-test may be used to determine if scores of two groups differ on a single variable--whether writing ability differs among students in two classrooms, for instance. A matched T-Test could also be applied to determine if scores of the same participants in a study differ under different conditions or over time. An ANOVA could be applied if the study compares multiple groups on one or more variables. Correlation measurements could also be constructed to compare the results of two interacting variables within the data set.

Secondary Analysis

Secondary analysis of survey data is an accepted methodology which applies previously collected survey data to new research questions. This methodology is particularly useful to researchers who do not have the time or money to conduct an extensive survey, but may be looking at questions for which some large survey has already collected relevant data. A number of books and chapters have been written about this methodology, some of which are listed in the annotated bibliography under "Secondary Analysis."

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Secondary Analysis

• Considerably cheaper and faster than doing original studies
• You can benefit from the research from some of the top scholars in your field, which for the most part ensures quality data.
• If you have limited funds and time, other surveys may have the advantage of samples drawn from larger populations.
• How much you use previously collected data is flexible; you might only extract a few figures from a table, you might use the data in a subsidiary role in your research, or even in a central role.
• A network of data archives in which survey data files are collected and distributed is readily available, making research for secondary analysis easily accessible.

Disadvantages

• Since many surveys deal with national populations, if you are interested in studying a well-defined minority subgroup you will have a difficult time finding relevant data.
• Secondary analysis can be used in irresponsible ways. If variables aren't exactly those you want, data can be manipulated and transformed in a way that might lessen the validity of the original research.
• Much research, particularly of large samples, can involve large data files and difficult statistical packages.

Data-entry Packages Available for Survey Data Analysis

SNAP: Offers simple survey analysis, is able to help with the survey from start to finish, including the designing of questions and questionnaires.

SPSS: Statistical package for social sciences; can cope with most kinds of data.

SAS: A flexible general purpose statistical analysis system.

MINITAB: A very easy-to-use and fairly limited general purpose package for "beginners."

STATGRAPHS: General interactive statistical package with good graphics but not very flexible.

Reporting Survey Results

The final stage of the survey is to report your results. There is not an established format for reporting a survey's results. The report may follow a pattern similar to formal experimental write-ups, or the analysis may show up in pitches to advertising agencies--as with Arbitron data--or the analysis may be presented in departmental meetings to aid curriculum arguments. A formal report might contain contextual information, a literature review, a presentation of the research question under investigation, information on survey participants, a section explaining how the survey was conducted, the survey instrument itself, a presentation of the quantified results, and a discussion of the results.

You can choose to graphically represent your data for easier interpretation by others outside your research project. You can use, for example, bar graphs, histograms, frequency polygrams, pie charts and consistency tables.

Commentary on Survey Research

In this section, we present several commentaries on survey research.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Surveys

• Surveys are relatively inexpensive (especially self-administered surveys).
• Surveys are useful in describing the characteristics of a large population. No other method of observation can provide this general capability.
• They can be administered from remote locations using mail, email or telephone.
• Consequently, very large samples are feasible, making the results statistically significant even when analyzing multiple variables.
• Many questions can be asked about a given topic giving considerable flexibility to the analysis.
• There is flexibilty at the creation phase in deciding how the questions will be administered: as face-to-face interviews, by telephone, as group administered written or oral survey, or by electonic means.
• Standardized questions make measurement more precise by enforcing uniform definitions upon the participants.
• Standardization ensures that similar data can be collected from groups then interpreted comparatively (between-group study).
• Usually, high reliability is easy to obtain--by presenting all subjects with a standardized stimulus, observer subjectivity is greatly eliminated.

Weaknesses:

• A methodology relying on standardization forces the researcher to develop questions general enough to be minimally appropriate for all respondents, possibly missing what is most appropriate to many respondents.
• Surveys are inflexible in that they require the initial study design (the tool and administration of the tool) to remain unchanged throughout the data collection.
• The researcher must ensure that a large number of the selected sample will reply.
• It may be hard for participants to recall information or to tell the truth about a controversial question.
• As opposed to direct observation, survey research (excluding some interview approaches) can seldom deal with "context."

Reliability and Validity

Surveys tend to be weak on validity and strong on reliability. The artificiality of the survey format puts a strain on validity. Since people's real feelings are hard to grasp in terms of such dichotomies as "agree/disagree," "support/oppose," "like/dislike," etc., these are only approximate indicators of what we have in mind when we create the questions. Reliability, on the other hand, is a clearer matter. Survey research presents all subjects with a standardized stimulus, and so goes a long way toward eliminating unreliability in the researcher's observations. Careful wording, format, content, etc. can reduce significantly the subject's own unreliability.

Ethical Considerations of Using Electronic Surveys

Because electronic mail is rapidly becoming such a large part of our communications system, this survey method deserves special attention. In particular, there are four basic ethical issues researchers should consider if they choose to use email surveys.

Sample Representatives: Since researchers who choose to do surveys have an ethical obligation to use population samples that are inclusive of race, gender, educational and income levels, etc., if you choose to utilize e-mail to administer your survey you face some serious problems. Individuals who have access to personal computers, modems and the Internet are not necessarily representative of a population. Therefore, it is suggested that researchers not use an e-mail survey when a more inclusive research method is available. However, if you do choose to do an e-mail survey because of its other advantages, you might consider including as part of your survey write up a reminder of the limitations of sample representativeness when using this method.

Data Analysis: Even though e-mail surveys tend to have greater response rates, researchers still do not necessarily know exactly who has responded. For example, some e-mail accounts are screened by an unintended viewer before they reach the intended viewer. This issue challenges the external validity of the study. According to Goree and Marszalek (1995), because of this challenge, "researchers should avoid using inferential analysis for electronic surveys" (p. 78).

Confidentiality versus Anonymity: An electronic response is never truly anonymous, since researchers know the respondents' e-mail addresses. According to Goree and Marszalek (1995), researchers are ethically required to guard the confidentiality of their respondents and to assure respondents that they will do so.

Responsible Quotation: It is considered acceptable for researchers to correct typographical or grammatical errors before quoting respondents since respondents do not have the ability to edit their responses. According to Goree and Marszalek (1995), researchers are also faced with the problem of "casual language" use common to electronic communication (p. 78). Casual language responses may be difficult to report within the formal language used in journal articles.

Response Rate Issues

Each year, nonresponse and response rates are becoming more and more important issues in survey research. According to Weisberg, Krosnick and Bowen (1989), in the 1950s it was not unusual for survey researchers to obtain response rates of 90 percent. Now, however, people are not as trusting of interviewers and response rates are much lower--typically 70 percent or less. Today, even when survey researchers obtain high response rates, they still have to deal with many potential respondent problems.

Nonresponse Issues

Nonresponse Errors Nonresponse is usually considered a source of bias in a survey, aptly called nonresponse bias . Nonresponse bias is a problem for almost every survey as it arises from the fact that there are usually differences between the ideal sample pool of respondents and the sample that actually responds to a survey. According to Fox and Tracy (1986), "when these differences are related to criterion measures, the results may be misleading or even erroneous" (p. 9). For example, a response rate of only 40 or 50 percent creates problems of bias since the results may reflect an inordinate percentage of a particular demographic portion of the sample. Thus, variance estimates and confidence intervals become greater as the sample size is reduced, and it becomes more difficult to construct confidence limits.

Nonresponse bias usually cannot be avoided and so inevitably negatively affects most survey research by creating errors in a statistical measurement. Researchers must therefore account for nonresponse either during the planning of their survey or during the analysis of their survey results. If you create a larger sample during the planning stage, confidence limits may be based on the actual number of responses themselves.

Household-Level Determinants of Nonresponse

According to Couper and Groves (1996), reductions in nonresponse and its errors should be based on a theory of survey participation. This theory of survey participation argues that a person's decision to participate in a survey generally occurs during the first moments of interaction with an interviewer or the text. According to Couper and Groves, four types of influences affect a potential respondent's decision of whether or not to cooperate in a survey. First, potential respondents are influenced by two factors that the researcher cannot control: by their social environments and by their immediate households. Second, potential respondents are influenced by two factors the researcher can control: the survey design and the interviewer.

To minimize nonresponse, Couper and Groves suggest that researchers manipulate the two factors they can control--the survey design and the interviewer.

Response Issues

Not only do survey researchers have to be concerned about nonresponse rate errors, but they also have to be concerned about the following potential response rate errors:

• Response bias occurs when respondents deliberately falsify their responses. This error greatly jeopardizes the validity of a survey's measurements.
• Response order bias occurs when a respondent loses track of all options and picks one that comes easily to mind rather than the most accurate.
• Response set bias occurs when respondents do not consider each question and just answer all the questions with the same response. For example, they answer "disagree" or "no" to all questions.

These response errors can seriously distort a survey's results. Unfortunately, according to Fox and Tracy (1986), response bias is difficult to eliminate; even if the same respondent is questioned repeatedly, he or she may continue to falsify responses. Response order bias and response set errors, however, can be reduced through careful development of the survey questionnaire.

Satisficing

Related to the issue of response errors, especially response order bias and response bias, is the issue of satisficing. According to Krosnick, Narayan, and Smith (1996) satisficing is the notion that certain survey response patterns occur as respondents "shortcut the cognitive processes necessary for generating optimal answers" (p. 29). This theoretical perspective arises from the belief that most respondents are not highly motivated to answer a survey's questions, as reflected in the declining response rates in recent years. Since many people are reluctant to be interviewed, it is presumptuous to assume that respondents will devote a lot of effort to answering a survey.

The theoretical notion of satisficing can be further understood by considering what respondents must do to provide optimal answers. According to Krosnick et. al. (1996), "respondents must carefully interpret the meaning of each question, search their memories extensively for all relevant information, integrate that information carefully into summary judgments, and respond in ways that convey those judgments' meanings as clearly and precisely as possible"(p. 31). Therefore, satisficing occurs when one or more of these cognitive steps is compromised.

Satisficing takes two forms: weak and strong . Weak satisficing occurs when respondents go through all of the cognitive steps necessary to provide optimal answers, but are not as thorough in their cognitive processing. For example, respondents can answer a question with the first response that seems acceptable instead of generating an optimal answer. Strong satisficing, on the other hand, occurs when respondents omit the steps of judgment and retrieval altogether.

Even though they believe that not enough is known yet to offer suggestions on how to increase optimal respondent answers, Krosnick et. al. (1996) argue that satisficing can be reduced by maximizing "respondent motivation" and by "minimizing task difficulty" in the survey questionnaire (p. 43).

Annotated Bibliography

General Survey Information:

Allan, Graham, & Skinner, Chris (eds.) (1991). Handbook for Research Students in the Social Sciences. The Falmer Press: London.

This book is an excellent resource for anyone studying in the social sciences. It is not only well-written, but it is clear and concise with pertinent research information.

Alreck, P. L., & Settle, R. B. (1995 ). The survey research handbook: Guidelines and strategies for conducting a survey (2nd). Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin.

Provides thorough, effective survey research guidelines and strategies for sponsors, information seekers, and researchers. In a very accessible, but comprehensive, format, this handbook includes checklists and guidelists within the text, bringing together all the different techniques and principles, skills and activities to do a "really effective survey."

Babbie, E.R. (1973). Survey research methods . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

A comprehensive overview of survey methods. Solid basic textbook on the subject.

Babbie, E.R. (1995). The practice of social research (7th). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

The reference of choice for many social science courses. An excellent overview of question construction, sampling, and survey methodology. Includes a fairly detailed critique of an example questionnaire. Also includes a good overview of statistics related to sampling.

Belson, W.A. (1986). Validity in survey research . Brookvield, VT: Gower.

Emphasis on construction of survey instrument to account for validity.

Bourque, Linda B. & Fiedler, Eve P. (1995). How to Conduct Self-Administered and Mail Surveys. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks.

Contains current information on both self-administered and mail surveys. It is a great resource if you want to design your own survey; there are step-by-step methods for conducting these two types of surveys.

Bradburn, N.M., & Sudman, S. (1979). Improving interview method and questionnaire design . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

A good overview of polling. Includes setting up questionnaires and survey techniques.

Bradburn, N. M., & Sudman, S. (1988). Polls and Surveys: Understanding What They Tell Us. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

These veteran survey researchers answer questions about survey research that are commonly asked by the general public.

Campbell, Angus, A., ∧ Katona, Georgia. (1953). The Sample Survey: A Technique for Social Science Research. In Newcomb, Theodore M. (Ed). Research Methods in the Behavioral Sciences. The Dryden Press: New York. p 14-55.

Includes information on all aspects of social science research. Some chapters in this book are outdated.

Converse, J. M., & Presser, S. (1986). Survey questions: Handcrafting the standardized questionnaire . Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

A very helpful little publication that addresses the key issues in question construction.

Dillman, D.A. (1978). Mail and telephone surveys: The total design method . New York: John Wiley & Sons.

An overview of conducting telephone surveys.

Frey, James H., & Oishi, Sabine Mertens. (1995). How To Conduct Interviews By Telephone and In Person. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks.

This book has a step-by-step breakdown of how to conduct and design telephone and in person interview surveys.

Fowler, Floyd J., Jr. (1993). Survey Research Methods (2nd.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

An overview of survey research methods.

Fowler, F. J. Jr., & Mangione, T. W. (1990). Standardized survey interviewing: Minimizing interviewer-related error . Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Another aspect of validity/reliability--interviewer error.

Fox, J. & Tracy, P. (1986). Randomized Response: A Method for Sensitive Surveys . Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Authors provide a good discussion of response issues and methods of random response, especially for surveys with sensitive questions.

Frey, J. H. (1989). Survey research by telephone (2nd). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

General overview to telephone polling.

Glock, Charles (ed.) (1967). Survey Research in the Social Sciences. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Although fairly outdated, this collection of essays is useful in illustrating the somewhat different ways in which different disciplines regard and use survey research.

Hoinville, G. & Jowell, R. (1978). Survey research practice . London: Heinemann.

Practical overview of the methods and procedures of survey research, particularly discussing problems which may arise.

Hyman, H. H. (1972). Secondary Analysis of Sample Surveys. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

This source is particularly useful for anyone attempting to do secondary analysis. It offers a comprehensive overview of this research method, and couches it within the broader context of social scientific research.

Hyman, H. H. (1955). Survey design and analysis: Principles, cases, and procedures . Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

According to Babbie, an oldie but goodie--a classic.

Jones, R. (1985). Research methods in the social and behavioral sciences . Sunderland, MA: Sinauer.

General introduction to methodology. Helpful section on survey research, especially the discussion on sampling.

Kalton, G. (1983). Compensating for missing survey data . Ann Arbor, MI: Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan.

Addresses a problem often encountered in survey methodology.

Kish, L. (1965). Survey sampling . New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Classic text on sampling theories and procedures.

Lake, C.C., & Harper, P. C. (1987). Public opinion polling: A handbook for public interest and citizen advocacy groups . Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Clearly written easy to read and follow guide for planning, conducting and analyzing public surveys. Presents material in a step-by-step fashion, including checklists, potential pitfalls and real-world examples and samples.

Lauer, J.M., & Asher, J. W. (1988). Composition research: Empirical designs . New York: Oxford UP.

Excellent overview of a number of research methodologies applicable to composition studies. Includes a chapter on "Sampling and Surveys" and appendices on basic statistical methods and considerations.

Monette, D. R., Sullivan, T. J, & DeJong, C. R. (1990). Applied Social Research: Tool for the Human Services (2nd). Fort Worth, TX: Holt.

A good basic general research textbook which also includes sections on minority issues when doing research and the analysis of "available" or secondary data..

Rea, L. M., & Parker, R. A. (1992). Designing and conducting survey research: A comprehensive guide . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Written for the social and behavioral sciences, public administration, and management.

Rossi, P.H., Wright, J.D., & Anderson, A.B. (eds.) (1983). Handbook of survey research . New York: Academic Press.

Handbook of quantitative studies in social relations.

Salant, P., & Dillman, D. A. (1994). How to conduct your own survey . New York: Wiley.,

A how-to book written for the social sciences.

Sayer, Andrew. (1992). Methods In Social Science: A Realist Approach. Routledge: London and New York.

Gives a different perspective on social science research.

Schuldt, Barbara A., & Totter, Jeff W. (1994, Winter). Electronic Mail vs. Mail Survey Response Rates. Marketing Research, 6. 36-39.

An article with specific information for electronic and mail surveys. Mainly a technical resource.

Schuman, H. & Presser, S. (1981). Questions and answers in attitude surveys . New York: Academic Press.

Detailed analysis of research question wording and question order effects on respondents.

Schwartz, N. & Seymour, S. (1996) Answering Questions: Methodology for Determining Cognitive and Communication Processes in Survey Research. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.

Authors provide a summary of the latest research methods used for analyzing interpretive cognitive and communication processes in answering survey questions.

Seymour, S., Bradburn, N. & Schwartz, N. (1996) Thinking About Answers: The Application of Cognitive Processes to Survey Methodology. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.

Explores the survey as a "social conversation" to investigate what answers mean in relation to how people understand the world and communicate.

Simon, J. (1969). Basic research methods in social science: The art of empirical investigation. New York: Random .

An excellent discussion of survey analysis. The definitions and descriptions begin from a fairly understandable (simple) starting point, then the discussion unfolds to cover some fairly complex interpretive strategies.

Singleton, R. Jr., et. al. (1988). Approaches to social research . New York: Oxford UP.

Has a very accessible chapter on sampling as well as a chapter on survey research.

Smith, Robert B. (Ed.) (1982). A Handbook of Social Science Methods, Volume 3. Prayer: New York.

There is a series of handbooks, each one with specific topics in social science research. A good technical resource, yet slightly dated.

Sul Lee, E., Forthofer, R.N.,& Lorimor, R.J. (1989). Analyzing complex survey data . Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Details on the statistical analysis of survey data.

Singer, E., & Presser, S., eds. (1989). Survey research methods: A reader . Chicago: U of Chicago P.

The essays in this volume originally appeared in various issues of Public Opinion Quarterly.

Survey Research Center (1983). Interviewer's manual . Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Very practical, step-by-step guide to conducting a survey and interview with lots of examples to illustrate the process.

Pearson, R.W., &Borouch, R.F. (Eds.) (1986). Survey Research Design: Towards a Better Understanding of Their Costs and Benefits. Springer-Verag: Berlin.

Explains, in a technical fashion, the financial aspects of research design. Somewhat of a cost-analysis book.

Weissberg, H.F., Krosnick , J.A., & Bowen, B.D. (1989). An introduction to survey research and data analysis . Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.

A good discussion of basic analysis and statistics, particularly what statistical applications are appropriate for particular kinds of data.

Anderson, B., Puur, A., Silver, B., Soova, H., & Voormann, R. (1994). Use of a lottery as an incentive for survey participation: a pilot survey in Estonia. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 6 , 64-71.

Looks at return results in a study that offers incentives, and recommends incentive use to increase response rates.

Bare, J. (1994). Truth about daily fluctuations in 1992 pre-election polls. Newspaper Research Journal, 15, 73-81.

Comparison of variations between daily poll results of the major polls used during the 1992 American Presidential race.

Chi, S. (1993). Computer knowledge, interests, attitudes, and uses among faculty in two teachers' universities in China. DAI-A, 54/12 , 4412-4623.

Survey indicating a strong link between subject area and computer usage.

Cowans, J. (1994). Wielding the people: Opinion polls and the problem of legitimacy in France since 1944. DAI-A, 54/12 , 4556-5027.

Study looks at how the advent of opinion polling has affected the legitimacy of French governments since World War II.

Crewe, I. (1993). A nation of liars? Opinion polls and the 1992 election. Journal of the Market Research Society, 35 , 341-359.

Poses possible reasons the British polls were so wrong in predicting the outcomes of the 1992 national elections.

Daly, J., & Miller, M. (1975). The empirical development of an instrument to measure writing apprehension. Research in the teaching of English , 9 (3), 242-249.

Discussion of basics in question development and data analysis. Also includes some sample questions.

Daniell, S. (1993). Graduate teaching assistants' attitudes toward and responses to academic dishonesty. DAI-A,54/06, 2065- 2257.

Study explores the ethical and academic responses to cheating, using a large survey tool.

Mittal, B. (1994). Public assessment of TV advertising: Faint praise and harsh criticism. Journal of Advertising Research, 34, 35-53.

Results of a survey of Southern U.S. television viewers' perceptions of television advertisements.

Palmquist, M., & Young, R.E. (1992). Is writing a gift? The impact on students who believe it is. Reading empirical research studies: The rhetoric of research . Hayes et al. eds. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.

This chapter presents results of a study of student beliefs about writing. Includes sample questions and data analysis.

Serow, R. C., & Bitting, P. F. (1995). National service as educational reform: A survey of student attitudes. Journal of research and development in education , 28 (2), 87-90.

This study assessed college students' attitude toward a national service program.

Stouffer, Samuel. (1955). Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

This is a famous old survey worth examining. This survey examined the impact of McCarthyism on the attitudes of both the general public and community leaders, a asking whether the repression of the early 1950s affected support for civil liberties.

Wanta, W. & Hu, Y. (1993). The agenda-setting effects of international news coverage: An examination of differing news frames. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 5, 250-264.

Discusses results of Gallup polls on important problems in relation to the news coverage of international news.

Worcester, R. (1992). The performance of the political opinion polls in the 1992 British general election. Marketing and Research Today, 20, 256-263.

A critique of the use of polls in an attempt to predict voter actions.

Yamada, S, & Synodinos, N. (1994). Public opinion surveys in Japan. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 6 , 118-138.

Explores trends in opinion poll usage, response rates, and refusals in Japanese polls from 1975 to 1990.

Criticism/Critique/Evaluation:

Bangura, A. K. (1992). The limitations of survey research methods in assessing the problem of minority student retention in higher education . San Francisco: Mellen Research UP.

Case study done at a Maryland university addressing an aspect of validity involving intercultural factors.

Bateson, N. (1984). Data construction in social surveys. London: Allen & Unwin.

Tackles the theory of the method (but not the methods of the method) of data construction. Deals with validity of the data by validizing the process of data construction.

Braverman, M. (1996). Sources of Survey Error: Implications for Evaluation Studies. New Directions for Evaluation: Advances in Survey Research ,70, 17-28.

Looks at how evaluations using surveys can benefit from using survey design methods that reduce various survey errors.

Brehm, J. (1994). Stubbing our toes for a foot in the door? Prior contact, incentives and survey response. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 6 , 45-63.

Considers whether incentives or the original contact letter lead to increased response rates.

Bulmer, M. (1977). Social-survey research. In M. Bulmer (ed.), Sociological research methods: An introduction . London: Macmillan.

The section includes discussions of pros and cons of survey research findings, inferences and interpreting relationships found in social-survey analysis.

Couper, M. & Groves, R. (1996). Household-Level Determinants of Survey Nonresponse. . New Directions for Evaluation: Advances in Survey Research , 70, 63-80.

Authors discuss their theory of survey participation. They believe that decisions to participate are based on two occurences: interactions with the interviewer, and the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents.

Couto, R. (1987). Participatory research: Methodology and critique. Clinical Sociology Review, 5 , 83-90.

Criticism of survey research. Addresses knowledge/power/change issues through the critique.

Dillman, D., Sangster, R., Tarnai, J., & Rockwood, T. (1996) Understanding Differences in People's Answers to Telephone and Mail Surveys. New Directions for Evaluation: Advances in Survey Research , 70, 45-62.

Explores the issue of differences in respondents' answers in telephone and mail surveys, which can affect a survey's results.

Esaiasson, P. & Granberg, D. (1993). Hidden negativism: Evaluation of Swedish parties and their leaders under different survey methods. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 5, 265-277.

Compares varying results of mailed questionnaires vs. telephone and personal interviews. Findings indicate methodology affected results.

Guastello, S. & Rieke, M. (1991). A review and critique of honesty test research. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 9, 501-523.

Looks at the use of honesty, or integrity, testing to predict theft by employees, questioning further use of the tests due to extremely low validity. Social and legal implications are also considered.

Hamilton, R. (1991). Work and leisure: On the reporting of poll results. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55 , 347-356.

Looks at methodology changes that affected reports of results in the Harris poll on American Leisure.

Juster, F. & Stanford, F. (1991). Comment on work and leisure: On reporting of poll results. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55 , 357-359.

Rebuttal of the Hamilton essay, cited above. The rebuttal is based upon statistical interpretation methods used in the cited survey.

Krosnick, J., Narayan, S., & Smith, W. (1996). Satisficing in Surveys: Initial Evidence. New Directions in Evaluation: Advances in Survey Research , 70, 29-44.

Authors discuss "satisficing," a cognitive approach to survey response, which they believe helps researchers understand how survey respondents arrive at their answers.

Lindsey, J.K. (1973). Inferences from sociological survey data: A unified approach . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Examines the statistical analysis of survey data.

Morgan, F. (1990). Judicial standards for survey research: An update and guidelines. Journal of Marketing, 54 , 59-70.

Looks at legal use of survey information as defined and limited in recent cases. Excellent definitions.

Pottick, K. (1990). Testing the underclass concept by surveying attitudes and behavior. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 17, 117-125.

Review of definitional tests constructed to define "underclass."

Rohme, N. (1992). The state of the art of public opinion polling worldwide. Marketing and Research Today, 20, 264-271.

A quick review of the use of polling in several countries, concluding that the use of polling is on the rise worldwide.

Sabatelli, R. (1988). Measurement issues in marital research: A review and critique of contemporary survey instruments. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55 , 891-915.

Examines issues of methodology.

Schriesheim, C. A.,& Denisi, A. S. (1980). Item Presentation as an Influence on Questionnaire Validity: A Field Experiment. Educational-and-Psychological-Measurement ; 40 (1), 175-82.

Two types of questionnaire formats measuring leadership variables were examined: one with items measuring the same dimensions grouped together and the second with items measuring the same dimensions distributed randomly. The random condition showed superior validity.

Smith, T. (1990). "A critique of the Kinsey Institute/Roper organization national sex knowledge survey." Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 55 , 449-457.

Questions validity of the survey based upon question selection and response interpretations. A rejoinder follows, defending the poll.

Smith, Tom W. (1990). "The First Straw? A Study of the Origins of Election Polls," Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 54 (Spring: 21-36).

This article offers a look at the early history of American political polling, with special attention to media reactions to the polls. This is an interesting source for anyone interested in the ethical issues surrounding polling and survey.

Sniderman, P. (1986). Reflections on American racism. Journal of Social Issues, 42 , 173-187.

Rebuttal of critique of racism research. Addresses issues of bias and motive attribution.

Stanfield, J. H. II, & Dennis, R. M., eds (1993). Race and Ethnicity in Research Methods . Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

The contributions in this volume examine the array of methods used in quantitative, qualitative, and comparative and historical research to show how research sensitive to ethnic issues can best be conducted.

Stapel, J. (1993). Public opinion polling: Some perspectives in response to 'critical perspectives.' International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 5, 193-194.

Discussion of the moral power of polling results.

Wentland, E. J., & Smith, K. W. (1993). Survey responses: An evaluation of their validity . San Diego: Academic Press.

Reviews and analyzes data from studies that have, through the use of external criteria, assessed the validity of individuals' responses to questions concerning personal characteristics and behavior in a wide variety of areas.

Williams, R. M., Jr. (1989). "The American Soldier: An Assessment, Several Wars Later." Public Opinion Quarterly. Vol. 53 (Summer: 155-174).

One of the classic studies in the history of survey research is reviewed by one of its authors.

Secondary Analysis:

Jolliffe, F.R. (1986). Survey Design and Analysis. Ellis Horwood Limited: Chichester.

Information about survey design as well as secondary analysis of surveys.

Kiecolt, K. J., & Nathan, L. E. (1985). Secondary analysis of survey data . Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Discussion of how to use previously collected survey data to answer a new research question.

Monette, D. R., Sullivan, T. J, & DeJong, C. R. (1990). Analysis of available data. In Applied Social Research: Tool for the Human Services (2nd ed., pp. 202-230). Fort Worth, TX: Holt.

Gives some existing sources for statistical data as well as discussing ways in which to use it.

Rubin, A. (1988). Secondary analyses. In R. M. Grinnell, Jr. (Ed.), Social work research and evaluation. (3rd ed., pp. 323-341). Itasca, IL: Peacock.

Chapter discusses inductive and deductive processes in relation to research designs using secondary data. It also discusses methodological issues and presents a case example.

Dale, A., Arber, S., & Procter, M. (1988). Doing Secondary Analysis . London: Unwin Hyman.

A whole book about how to do secondary analysis.

Electronic Surveys:

Carr, H. H. (1991). Is using computer-based questionnaires better than using paper? Journal of Systems Management September, 19, 37.

Reference from Thach.

Dunnington, Richard A. (1993). New methods and technologies in the organizational survey process. American Behavioral Scientist , 36 (4), 512-30.

Asserts that three decades of technological advancements in communications and computer techhnology have transformed, if not revolutionized, organizational survey use and potential.

Goree, C. & Marszalek, J. (1995). Electronic Surveys: Ethical Issues for Researchers. The College Student Affairs Journal , 15 (1), 75-79.

Explores how the use of electronic surveys challenge existing ethical standards of survey research, and how that researchers need to be aware of these new ethical issues.

Hsu, J. (1995). The Development of Electronic Surveys: A Computer Language-Based Method. The Electronic Library , 13 (3), 195-201.

Discusses the need for a markup language method to properly support the creation of survey questionnaires.

Kiesler, S. & Sproull, L. S. (1986). Response effects in the electronic survey. Public Opinion Quarterly, 50 , 402-13.

Opperman, M. (1995) E-Mail Surveys--Potentials and Pitfalls. Marketing Research, 7 (3), 29-33.

A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of using E-Mail surveys.

Sproull, L. S. (1986). Using electronic mail for data collection in organizational research. Academy of Management Journal, 29, 159-69.

Synodinos, N. E., & Brennan, J. M. (1988). Computer interactive interviewing in survey research. Psychology & Marketing, 5 (2), 117-137.

Thach, Liz. (1995). Using electronic mail to conduct survey research. Educational Technology, 35, 27-31.

A review of the literature on the topic of survey research via electronic mail concentrating on the key issues in design, implementation, and response using this medium.

Walsh, J. P., Kiesler, S., Sproull, L. S., & Hesse, B. W. (1992). Self-selected and randomly selected respondents in a computer network survey. Public Opinion Quarterly, 56, 241-244.

Further Investigation

Bery, David N., & Smith , Kenwyn K. (eds.) (1988). The Self in Social Inquiry: Researching Methods. Sage Publications: Newbury Park.

Has some ethical issues about the role of researcher in social science research.

Barribeau, Paul, Bonnie Butler, Jeff Corney, Megan Doney, Jennifer Gault, Jane Gordon, Randy Fetzer, Allyson Klein, Cathy Ackerson Rogers, Irene F. Stein, Carroll Steiner, Heather Urschel, Theresa Waggoner, & Mike Palmquist. (2005). Survey Research. Writing@CSU . Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=68

How to Write a Survey Introduction [+Examples]

Published: August 25, 2021

Writing a survey introduction probably isn't something you think about very often. That is until you're looking at the first screen of your almost finalized survey thinking "I should put something here. But what?"

While a potentially overlooked piece of the survey creation process, a good survey introduction is critical to improving survey completion rates and ensuring that the responses you receive are accurate. Taking the time to think about what information to include in your introduction can have a big impact on the success of your survey.

What is a Survey Introduction?

A survey introduction is the block of text that precedes the questions of your survey. It might be included at the top of an email requesting feedback or be the first slide in a series of questions. The survey introduction serves to set the stage for what the survey is, why the recipient should take the time to complete it, and what you're going to do with the information you collect. It should be compelling, informative, and reassuring.

5 Free Customer Satisfaction Survey Templates

Easily measure customer satisfaction and begin to improve your customer experience.

• Net Promoter Score
• Customer Effort Score

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

How to Write a Survey Introduction

Start by thinking about the purpose of this survey. Who will be taking the survey? What information do you need for the project to be successful? Distill this information down into a sentence or two for your audience. Some examples may include:

• We're looking for feedback on our new product line for men.
• Tell us about your recent customer service experience.
• We're revamping our spring menu! What do you want for dinner?

Secondly, follow up with any logistical information they need to know about the survey. How many questions is it? When does the survey end? Who should they contact if they have additional questions? This might sound something like:

• This 5 question survey will take around 10 minutes to complete.
• Click below to access the short, two-question survey. For further information or feedback, please contact our support team at [email protected].
• This survey will be open until April 24th, 2022. Please take 5 minutes to provide your feedback before that time.

Finally, reassure the survey participants that their data is safe, and offer any information about how the survey data will be used:

• Your answers are anonymous and will be used to improve our future customer service strategy.
• Responses will be anonymized and analyzed for our upcoming report on consumer perception of insurance companies in the US. Please leave your email address if you'd like to receive a copy of the finished report.
• We read every response to our customer happiness surveys, and follow-up to make sure you're left with a positive experience.

No matter what you include in your survey introduction, make sure to keep it concise and as short as possible. Too long, and you risk readers dropping off and not completing your survey. It's also important to keep your survey messaging on-brand. If you typically use a brand voice that's quite corporate, switching to a conversational tone in your survey introduction will feel out of place. It might even make some readers question if the survey is truly coming from your company - causing distrust in its authenticity.

Finally, thank your respondents for their time. Even if their responses are negative, the fact that they're engaging with your survey is a great indicator of their loyalty . Customers will not take the time to provide feedback to companies they don't care about. Here are some phrases you can use to show your appreciation:

• This feedback is very helpful for our team in developing new features. Thank you so much for taking the time to complete this survey.
• We read every comment you leave on these surveys, so thank you for your feedback!
• We truly appreciate your insight and your time.

Want to make sure you've got it all covered? Save this checklist of the most important aspects to include in the survey introduction:

• How long will it take? (Minutes or number of questions)
• Why are you doing this survey?
• Why should they fill it out? Is there a giveaway for respondents (such as a draw for a $50 Amazon card) or another incentive to complete it?
• What are you going to do with the results? Are they anonymous?
• When does the survey close? What is the overall timeline?
• Are there any definitions or things they need to know before filling out the survey?
• Where should they go if they have questions or more feedback?
• Thank your participants for their time and feedback.
• Any additional information they need to fill out the survey with good, accurate data

Good Survey Introduction Examples

These survey introductions hit all the right notes. Read on for inspiration and additional tricks on how to write your own!

1. Squamish Off-Road Cycling Association (SORCA)

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

Nonresponse Bias: What to Avoid When Creating Surveys

How to Make a Survey with a QR Code

50 Catchy Referral Slogans & How to Write Your Own

How Automated Phone Surveys Work [+Tips and Examples]

Online Panels: What They Are & How to Use Them Effectively

The Complete Guide to Survey Logic (+Expert Tips)

Focus Group vs. Survey: Which One Should You Use?

Leading Questions: What They Are & Why They Matter [+ Examples]

What are Survey Sample Sizes & How to Find Your Sample Size

28 Questionnaire Examples, Questions, & Templates to Survey Your Clients

5 free templates for learning more about your customers and respondents.

Service Hub provides everything you need to delight and retain customers while supporting the success of your whole front office

Academic Experience

Great survey questions: How to write them & avoid common mistakes

Learning how to write survey questions is both art and science. The wording you choose can make the difference between accurate, useful data and just the opposite. Fortunately, we’ve got a raft of tips to help.

Figuring out how to make a good survey that yields actionable insights is all about sweating the details. And writing effective questionnaire questions is the first step.

Essential for success is understanding the different types of survey questions and how they work. Each format needs a slightly different approach to question-writing.

In this article, we’ll share how to write survey questionnaires and list some common errors to avoid so you can improve your surveys and the data they provide.

Free eBook: The Qualtrics survey template guide

Survey question types

Did you know that Qualtrics provides 23 question types you can use in your surveys ? Some are very popular and used frequently by a wide range of people from students to market researchers, while others are more specialist and used to explore complex topics. Here’s an introduction to some basic survey question formats, and how to write them well.

Multiple choice

Familiar to many, multiple choice questions ask a respondent to pick from a range of options. You can set up the question so that only one selection is possible, or allow more than one to be ticked.

When writing a multiple choice question…

• Be clear about whether the survey taker should choose one (“pick only one”) or several (“select all that apply”).
• Think carefully about the options you provide, since these will shape your results data.
• The phrase “of the following” can be helpful for setting expectations. For example, if you ask “What is your favorite meal” and provide the options “hamburger and fries”, “spaghetti and meatballs”, there’s a good chance your respondent’s true favorite won’t be included. If you add “of the following” the question makes more sense.

Asking participants to rank things in order, whether it’s order of preference, frequency or perceived value, is done using a rank structure. There can be a variety of interfaces, including drag-and-drop, radio buttons, text boxes and more.

When writing a rank order question…

• Explain how the interface works and what the respondent should do to indicate their choice. For example “drag and drop the items in this list to show your order of preference.”
• Be clear about which end of the scale is which. For example, “With the best at the top, rank these items from best to worst”
• Be as specific as you can about how the respondent should consider the options and how to rank them. For example, “thinking about the last 3 months’ viewing, rank these TV streaming services in order of quality, starting with the best”

Slider structures ask the respondent to move a pointer or button along a scale, usually a numerical one, to indicate their answers.

When writing a slider question…

• Consider whether the question format will be intuitive to your respondents, and whether you should add help text such as “click/tap and drag on the bar to select your answer”
• Qualtrics includes the option for an open field where your respondent can type their answer instead of using a slider. If you offer this, make sure to reference it in the survey question so the respondent understands its purpose.

Also known as an open field question, this format allows survey-takers to answer in their own words by typing into the comments box.

When writing a text entry question…

• Use open-ended question structures like “How do you feel about…” “If you said x, why?” or “What makes a good x?”
• Open-ended questions take more effort to answer, so use these types of questions sparingly.
• Be as clear and specific as possible in how you frame the question. Give them as much context as you can to help make answering easier. For example, rather than “How is our customer service?”, write “Thinking about your experience with us today, in what areas could we do better?”

Matrix table

Matrix structures allow you to address several topics using the same rating system, for example a Likert scale (Very satisfied / satisfied / neither satisfied nor dissatisfied / dissatisfied / very dissatisfied).

When writing a matrix table question…

• Make sure the topics are clearly differentiated from each other, so that participants don’t get confused by similar questions placed side by side and answer the wrong one.
• Keep text brief and focused. A matrix includes a lot of information already, so make it easier for your survey-taker by using plain language and short, clear phrases in your matrix text.
• Add detail to the introductory static text if necessary to help keep the labels short. For example, if your introductory text says “In the Philadelphia store, how satisfied were you with the…” you can make the topic labels very brief, for example “staff friendliness” “signage” “price labeling” etc.

Now that you know your rating scales from your open fields, here are the 7 most common mistakes to avoid when you write questions. We’ve also added plenty of survey question examples to help illustrate the points.

Likert Scale Questions

Likert scales are commonly used in market research when dealing with single topic survyes. They're simple and most reliable when combatting survey bias . For each question or statement, subjects choose from a range of possible responses. The responses, for example, typically include:

• Strongly agree
• Strongly disagree

7 survey question examples to avoid.

There are countless great examples of writing survey questions but how do you know if your types of survey questions will perform well? We've highlighted the 7 most common mistakes when attempting to get customer feedback with online surveys.

Survey question mistake #1: Failing to avoid leading words / questions

Subtle wording differences can produce great differences in results. For example, non-specific words and ideas can cause a certain level of confusing ambiguity in your survey. “Could,” “should,” and “might” all sound about the same, but may produce a 20% difference in agreement to a question.

In addition, strong words such as “force” and “prohibit” represent control or action and can bias your results.

Example: The government should force you to pay higher taxes.

No one likes to be forced, and no one likes higher taxes. This agreement scale question makes it sound doubly bad to raise taxes. When survey questions read more like normative statements than questions looking for objective feedback, any ability to measure that feedback becomes difficult.

Wording alternatives can be developed. How about simple statements such as: The government should increase taxes, or the government needs to increase taxes.

Example: How would you rate the career of legendary outfielder Joe Dimaggio?

This survey question tells you Joe Dimaggio is a legendary outfielder. This type of wording can bias respondents.

How about replacing the word “legendary” with “baseball” as in: How would you rate the career of baseball outfielder Joe Dimaggio? A rating scale question like this gets more accurate answers from the start.

Survey question mistake #2: Failing to give mutually exclusive choices

Multiple choice response options should be mutually exclusive so that respondents can make clear choices. Don’t create ambiguity for respondents.

Review your survey and identify ways respondents could get stuck with either too many or no single, correct answers to choose from.

Example: What is your age group?

What answer would you select if you were 10, 20, or 30? Survey questions like this will frustrate a respondent and invalidate your results.

Example: What type of vehicle do you own?

This question has the same problem. What if the respondent owns a truck, hybrid, convertible, cross-over, motorcycle, or no vehicle at all?

Survey question mistake #3: Not asking direct questions

Questions that are vague and do not communicate your intent can limit the usefulness of your results. Make sure respondents know what you’re asking.

Example: What suggestions do you have for improving Tom’s Tomato Juice?

This question may be intended to obtain suggestions about improving taste, but respondents will offer suggestions about texture, the type of can or bottle, about mixing juices, or even suggestions relating to using tomato juice as a mixer or in recipes.

Example: What do you like to do for fun?

Finding out that respondents like to play Scrabble isn’t what the researcher is looking for, but it may be the response received. It is unclear that the researcher is asking about movies vs. other forms of paid entertainment. A respondent could take this question in many directions.

Survey question mistake #4: Forgetting to add a “prefer not to answer” option

Sometimes respondents may not want you to collect certain types of information or may not want to provide you with the types of information requested.

Questions about income, occupation, personal health, finances, family life, personal hygiene, and personal, political, or religious beliefs can be too intrusive and be rejected by the respondent.

Privacy is an important issue to most people. Incentives and assurances of confidentiality can make it easier to obtain private information.

While current research does not support that PNA (Prefer Not to Answer) options increase data quality or response rates, many respondents appreciate this non-disclosure option.

Furthermore, different cultural groups may respond differently. One recent study found that while U.S. respondents skip sensitive questions, Asian respondents often discontinue the survey entirely.

• What is your race?
• What is your age?
• Did you vote in the last election?
• What are your religious beliefs?
• What are your political beliefs?
• What is your annual household income?

These types of questions should be asked only when absolutely necessary. In addition, they should always include an option to not answer. (e.g. “Prefer Not to Answer”).

Survey question mistake #5: Failing to cover all possible answer choices

Do you have all of the options covered? If you are unsure, conduct a pretest version of your survey using “Other (please specify)” as an option.

If more than 10% of respondents (in a pretest or otherwise) select “other,” you are probably missing an answer. Review the “Other” text your test respondents have provided and add the most frequently mentioned new options to the list.

Example: You indicated that you eat at Joe's fast food once every 3 months. Why don't you eat at Joe's more often?

There isn't a location near my house

I don't like the taste of the food

Never heard of it

This question doesn’t include other options, such as healthiness of the food, price/value or some “other” reason. Over 10% of respondents would probably have a problem answering this question.

Survey question mistake #6: Not using unbalanced scales carefully

Unbalanced scales may be appropriate for some situations and promote bias in others.

For instance, a hospital might use an Excellent - Very Good - Good - Fair scale where “Fair” is the lowest customer satisfaction point because they believe “Fair” is absolutely unacceptable and requires correction.

The key is to correctly interpret your analysis of the scale. If “Fair” is the lowest point on a scale, then a result slightly better than fair is probably not a good one.

Additionally, scale points should represent equi-distant points on a scale. That is, they should have the same equal conceptual distance from one point to the next.

For example, researchers have shown the points to be nearly equi-distant on the strongly disagree–disagree–neutral–agree–strongly agree scale.

Set your bottom point as the worst possible situation and top point as the best possible, then evenly spread the labels for your scale points in-between.

Example: What is your opinion of Crazy Justin's auto-repair?

Pretty good

The Best Ever

This question puts the center of the scale at fantastic, and the lowest possible rating as “Pretty Good.” This question is not capable of collecting true opinions of respondents.

Survey question mistake #7: Not asking only one question at a time

There is often a temptation to ask multiple questions at once. This can cause problems for respondents and influence their responses.

Review each question and make sure it asks only one clear question.

Example: What is the fastest and most economical internet service for you?

This is really asking two questions. The fastest is often not the most economical.

Example: How likely are you to go out for dinner and a movie this weekend?

Dinner and Movie

Dinner Only

Even though “dinner and a movie” is a common term, this is two questions as well. It is best to separate activities into different questions or give respondents these options:

5 more tips on how to write a survey

Here are 5 easy ways to help ensure your survey results are unbiased and actionable.

1. Use the Funnel Technique

Structure your questionnaire using the “funnel” technique. Start with broad, general interest questions that are easy for the respondent to answer. These questions serve to warm up the respondent and get them involved in the survey before giving them a challenge. The most difficult questions are placed in the middle – those that take time to think about and those that are of less general interest. At the end, we again place general questions that are easier to answer and of broad interest and application. Typically, these last questions include demographic and other classification questions.

2. Use “Ringer” questions

In social settings, are you more introverted or more extroverted?

That was a ringer question and its purpose was to recapture your attention if you happened to lose focus earlier in this article.

Questionnaires often include “ringer” or “throw away” questions to increase interest and willingness to respond to a survey. These questions are about hot topics of the day and often have little to do with the survey. While these questions will definitely spice up a boring survey, they require valuable space that could be devoted to the main topic of interest. Use this type of question sparingly.

3. Keep your questionnaire short

Questionnaires should be kept short and to the point. Most long surveys are not completed, and the ones that are completed are often answered hastily. A quick look at a survey containing page after page of boring questions produces a response of, “there is no way I’m going to complete this thing”. If a questionnaire is long, the person must either be very interested in the topic, an employee, or paid for their time. Web surveys have some advantages because the respondent often can't view all of the survey questions at once. However, if your survey's navigation sends them page after page of questions, your response rate will drop off dramatically.

How long is too long?  The sweet spot is to keep the survey to less than five minutes. This translates into about 15 questions. The average respondent is able to complete about 3 multiple choice questions per minute. An open-ended text response question counts for about three multiple choice questions depending, of course, on the difficulty of the question. While only a rule of thumb, this formula will accurately predict the limits of your survey.

4. Watch your writing style

The best survey questions are always easy to read and understand. As a rule of thumb, the level of sophistication in your survey writing should be at the 9th to 11th grade level. Don’t use big words. Use simple sentences and simple choices for the answers. Simplicity is always best.

5. Use randomization

We know that being the first on the list in elections increases the chance of being elected. Similar bias occurs in all questionnaires when the same answer appears at the top of the list for each respondent. Randomization corrects this bias by randomly rotating the order of the multiple choice matrix questions for each respondent.

Free Templates: Get free access to 30+ of Qualtrics' best survey templates

While not totally inclusive, these seven survey question tips are common offenders in building good survey questions. And the five tips above should steer you in the right direction.

Focus on creating clear questions and having an understandable, appropriate, and complete set of answer choices. Great questions and great answer choices lead to great research success. To learn more about survey question design, download our eBook, The Qualtrics survey template guide or get started with a free survey account with our world-class survey software .

Sarah Fisher

Related Articles

February 8, 2023

Smoothing the transition from school to work with work-based learning

December 6, 2022

How customer experience helps bring Open Universities Australia’s brand promise to life

August 18, 2022

School safety, learning gaps top of mind for parents this back-to-school season

August 9, 2022

3 things that will improve your teachers’ school experience

August 2, 2022

Why a sense of belonging at school matters for K-12 students

July 14, 2022

Improve the student experience with simplified course evaluations

March 17, 2022

Understanding what’s important to college students

February 18, 2022

Malala: ‘Education transforms lives, communities, and countries’

Stay up to date with the latest xm thought leadership, tips and news., request demo.

Ready to learn more about Qualtrics?

• Survey software
• Pre-built surveys
• Research projects
• Sector solutions
• Case studies
• Training and consultancy
• Events and webinars
• Margin of error calculator
• Sample size calculator
• QR code generator

Privacy and legal

• GDPR compliance
• CCPA compliance
• Web survey accessibility
• Legal agreements and resources
• Request demo
• Survey design

Survey Research Briefs – Writing a Research Brief for a Successful Survey

• Written by Susan E. DeFranzo

A great research brief begins with clear objectives and is an essential first step in any survey.  A well thought out plan will enable you to prioritize your objective and to develop the right questions to gain the information you need for your market research.

The first step in developing your brief would be to answer these questions:

• What are you trying to learn from your survey research and why do you need this information?
• Who can give you the information and how will you get it from them?

Once you answer these questions, you’re off to a great start.  These clearly defined research objectives help to determine the information that is required and develop the questions to ask.   Clear and precise objectives for your survey will ensure a good questionnaire. 

Example of an objective that is too vague in a customer satisfaction survey:

“Are customers satisfied with our products and services?”

Example of an objective in a customer satisfaction survey that is specific and well defined:

“To measure the level of customer satisfaction during the first quarter of 2011, with our PC repair service Division, on a five point scale, broken down by gender, and age.  To identify additional services required by gender and age.”

Good survey research objectives can be defined by the acronym “SMART”

“S” Specific -Clear and specific statement on what is to be measured.  Example:  Hold time for incoming calls to our service department.

“M ” Measureable- Use a method and scale of measurement that can accurately capture the information you require.  Example:  On a scale of 1-5 (5 being excellent) was your call handled quickly?

“A” Accurate – Can you accurately capture the information you require with the measurement and method you selected? 

“R” Realistic – Is it realistic to assume the respondents can give you the information you require?

“T” Time – There is a start and end point to your survey. 

Additional objectives that may be relevant to your research:

• Is it location based?  Did the customers in Hartford have a better experience than the customers in New Haven?
• Is it gender based and/or age based?  Did 18-25 year old females have a better experience than 45 to 60 year old males?

These specific and well thought out questions will help you and your firm to build better survey tools, and give you the insight you need to make clear and concise decisions as a result of the survey outcome.

Related topics

• Customer Satisfaction Survey , Customer Satisfaction Surveys , Market Research , Research Brief , Successful Survey , survey , Survey Outcome , Survey Tools

You might also be interested in:

Question types: creating engaging surveys (Ultimate Guide)

How to create a survey  

What Are Mobile Optimized Surveys?

Try snap xmp for free today.

Ready to see what our survey platform can do? Click below to get started.

(No credit card required)

Cookie settings

With the slider, you can enable or disable different types of cookies:, this website will:.

• Remember which cookies group you accepted
• Strictly necessary: remember your cookie permission setting
• Strictly necessary: allow session cookies
• Strictly necessary: authenticate that you are logged into your user account

This website won't:

• Functionality: remember your online chat ID
• Analytics: keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
• Analytics: keep track of your location and region based on your partial IP number
• Analytics: keep track of the time spent on each page and the videos you watch
• Analytics: identify the device you are using
• Targeting: identify if you contacted or called us as a result of one of our adverts

How to write a survey introduction that will inspire people to participate

• 11 min read

What is a survey introduction—and what is its purpose?

1. the importance of a compelling introduction, 2. understand the audience, 3. personalization, 4. clear and concise language, 5. survey timing, 6. incentives and rewards, 7. privacy and data security, 8. contact information, 9. testing and feedback, 10. adapting to different survey types, 11. visual appeal, 12. a/b testing, 13. follow-up surveys, 14. compliance with ethical guidelines, 15. analyzing introduction performance, 16. continuous improvement, survey introduction example: a template for any type of research, introduction to a customer satisfaction survey, introduction to a market survey, student survey introduction sample, introduction to an employee survey, introduction for a research paper survey, introduction to a survey report, additional tips for creating the best survey introduction.

Creating a good introduction for a survey is a crucial part of successful research. Its quality will greatly impact the process. It will improve the end result, including survey completion rates and response accuracy.

A questionnaire introduction provides the chance to introduce yourself and the topic being explored to respondents. It is also a chance to assure them that their personal information will be kept safe and explain how they will benefit from completing the survey.

This article explores how to write a survey introduction, discusses its importance, and provides valuable, ready-to-use questionnaire introduction examples.

A questionnaire introduction is a short body of text appearing on the user’s screen at the beginning of a survey. It is the first contact point between you and potential participants prior to respondents seeing any of the survey questions .

This block of text sets up the level of cooperation that will be forthcoming from the person reading it. You need to convince them to participate by providing valuable information about the survey.

This includes the research topic, the expected time it will take to complete the survey, how responses will be processed, and why it’s in someone’s interest to take the time to complete it. The survey introduction can be in the body of an email or on the first slide of the survey.

Based on the introduction, potential respondents will decide whether to participate in the survey. It is an overall description of the survey, the equivalent of the abstract in a dissertation or other research paper.

How to write survey introduction text well

After spending days or even months making the perfect survey , you probably know it like the palm of your hand. However, it’s important to take time to better understand a respondent’s initial reaction to it—they may not be familiar with the topic at all.

As with every stage of the survey-making process, respondents’ perspectives have to be kept in mind and efforts undertaken to make their experience easy and worthwhile.

Here are 16 simple steps on how to write a survey introduction text to make it engaging.

The introduction in survey questionnaires serves as the gateway to a successful survey. A compelling one not only grabs the attention of respondents but also sets the tone for the entire surveying process. A well-framed introduction ensures that respondents understand the purpose and relevance of the survey, making them more inclined to complete it. Essentially, a thoughtful introduction can heavily influence the overall response rate and the quality of data collected.

Every survey is designed for a specific demographic or audience. Understanding them, and what drives them, allows for a tailored introduction that resonates. For instance, a survey meant for teenagers requires a different tone and approach than one aimed at senior citizens. By empathizing with the audience’s perspective, one can craft an introduction that speaks directly to their interests and motivations.

In today’s digital age, consumers appreciate distinctive touches. Personalizing a survey introduction, whether through addressing the respondent by name or referring to past interactions, adds a layer of authenticity. It gives the respondent a feeling of being valued and recognized, which can translate into a higher likelihood of participation.

Clarity is paramount in any communication. A good introduction for a questionnaire is vital in ensuring that respondents immediately understand the survey’s purpose and what’s expected of them. Avoid industry jargon or overly complex sentences. Instead, opt for straightforward and concise language that communicates the essentials without overwhelming or confusing respondents.

Timing can be a determining factor in the success of a survey. For instance, sending a customer satisfaction survey immediately after a purchase or service experience ensures the interaction is fresh in the respondent’s mind, leading to more accurate and detailed feedback. On the other hand, ill-timed surveys may come across as irrelevant or intrusive.

Motivation is a powerful tool. Offering respondents a tangible incentive—whether it’s a discount, gift card, or entry into a prize draw—can significantly boost participation rates. However, it’s essential that these incentives are relevant and appealing to the target audience and then delivered as promised.

With increasing concerns about data privacy, assuring respondents that their information’s safety is non-negotiable is vital. An introduction should clearly outline the measures taken to protect personal information and how the data being collected in the survey will be used. Being transparent about compliance with regulations like GDPR will instill confidence and trust in respondents.

Including contact details in the survey introduction can be a game-changer. It not only offers a channel for respondents to voice concerns or seek clarifications but also communicates transparency and openness. This proactive approach can lead to increased trust and a willingness to participate.

Like any piece of content, an introduction for a questionnaire benefits from testing. Running it by a small group—preferably from the target demographic—and seeking feedback can highlight potential areas for improvement. This iterative process ensures the introduction is optimized for its main audience.

Different surveys serve different purposes and their introductions should reflect this variance. An employee feedback survey will require a different tone and set of assurances than a market research questionnaire. Tailoring the introduction to the survey’s unique context ensures that it will resonate with potential respondents.

The aesthetics of a survey introduction can influence a respondent’s decision to proceed. Utilizing a clean, intuitive design incorporating on-brand colors and images can create an inviting and professional first impression. It’s essential to ensure the design enhances the content—as opposed to distracting from it.

Refinement is the key to perfection. A/B testing, in which two different introductions are presented to separate groups of respondents, can provide insights into which one performs better. This data-driven approach ensures that the introduction is continually optimized based on real-world feedback.

Gathering feedback is an ongoing process. Follow-up surveys, sent after the initial one, can delve deeper into specific topics or measure changes in opinions over time. However, their introduction needs to acknowledge the prior interaction and explain the rationale for a subsequent survey.

Conducting surveys isn’t just about gathering data, it’s about doing so ethically and responsibly. Ethical considerations, including informed consent and participant rights, should be highlighted in the introduction. This ensures participants are aware of their privileges and fosters a culture of respect.

After deploying a survey, it’s crucial to evaluate the introduction’s efficacy. By examining metrics like response rate, drop-off rate, and feedback, insights can be gained regarding the introduction’s strengths and the areas needing improvement. This analysis forms the foundation for future refinements.

The art of crafting survey introductions is one of continuous learning. As markets evolve and respondents’ preferences change, so should the survey approach. By staying adaptive and open to feedback, researchers can ensure their introductions remain effective and engaging.

Based on the checklist above, here is a survey introduction email example that fulfills all the requirements that will act as the perfect first contact with potential respondents.

• Hey there, we would like to hear about your recent customer service experience!
• At [company name], your satisfaction is what we value most. By participating in our survey, you will help us improve our products and offer you even better service.
• This five-question survey takes only ten minutes to complete and is available until the 28th of November.
• It is anonymous. The data gathered will only be used internally to improve our future customer service strategies.
• Click below to access the survey. If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact us at support@company.com . We appreciate your feedback!

The wording of a questionnaire introduction and the information that is included can differ based on the field of research. Check out our survey introduction examples and choose an introduction sample best suited to your needs.

A customer satisfaction survey introduction is likewise an important part of customer experience research. The wording will have a huge impact on whether customers will take the time to answer—or just ignore it.

If surveying recent customer experience, send a survey shortly after customers purchased a product or had contact with the customer support team while the experience is still fresh in their mind.

Stay true to your company’s tone of voice and let respondents know that you appreciate their patronage. An incentive that encourages them to participate can also be offered. Here is a survey intro example:

Thank you for shopping at [company name]! We would like to ask you a few questions to learn about your shopping experience.

This survey will take only a couple of minutes and will be very valuable for improving the services we offer to you. The responses you give will stay anonymous.

Click below to participate, which will get you 30 percent off your next order!

Market research surveys are conducted to get more information about the situation in a specific economic sector and provide valuable real-time insights into the needs of a target audience and how the competition is doing.

Conducting product surveys can help improve existing products or make adjustments before releasing new products or services. Simply put, market research surveys help expand and grow a business.

When doing this kind of research, it is important to determine the target audience. If they are not yet customers, they may not be familiar with your brand, so make sure to introduce it properly and explain why they have been chosen for this research. Here is an example:

• Nice to meet you! We are [company name], and we are working on bringing affordable [your products] to the world.
• Our company aims to develop the best possible products for our customers, and we need your opinion to make this happen.
• Wondering why we chose you? We are looking for [describe your target audience], which makes you a perfect fit.
• We would appreciate it if you took the time to answer this five-minute survey. It is anonymous, and your data will be used only for this research.
• Click below to fill out our survey and get 10 percent off our newest collection!

Student surveys are an important part of education surveys . With them, feedback is garnered from students regarding teachers, courses, curriculum, extracurricular activities, and much more.

Measuring students’ satisfaction levels helps highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a school, which in turn helps improve decision-making. However, in order to get accurate responses, certain steps are required, including how the introduction is written.

When making surveys for students, ensure they are anonymous. Many students may be afraid of retaliation, which will make them reluctant to give honest opinions.

Emphasize their anonymity in the introduction. Explain why this research is being carried out and how the gathered data will be used. Here is an example of a student questionnaire survey introduction:

• Thank you for being one of our students at [name of your school]. Please take the time to answer this short five-minute survey and let us know how satisfied you are with your chosen courses from this semester.
• This survey is anonymous, so feel free to answer honestly. It will very much improve the accuracy of our data and help us improve the curriculum as best as possible.

Conducting human resource surveys can greatly improve a workplace, which will result in happier and more productive employees. Find out about the work-life balance of employees and the overall company culture, measure the motivation and engagement of employees, and learn how satisfied they are with their jobs.

When writing the survey introduction, focus on the same aspects as above. Emphasize that the survey is anonymous and communicate this openly to employees. This will encourage them to share their honest opinions and help gather valuable and accurate responses.

Some research papers require conducting surveys on a particular topic. Writing a research questionnaire introduction for a research paper is no different than writing one for the previously mentioned purposes.

Introduce yourself and the topic to respondents and explain the purpose of the research and the benefit to them for participating. Include other information about the survey that you think is needed, though make sure to not overdo it. Keep it short and simple for high survey completion rates.

Writing a survey report is one of the seven steps of conducting survey research . It is the last one after the data analysis and is crucial to presenting findings.

A survey report introduction is very important for the success of a report. Its purpose is to introduce readers or listeners to the topic and the ultimate findings of the research.

The same advice applies: keep it short, use simple language, and incorporate only the most important information.

And above all, put yourself in the shoes of the audience. Unlike you, they have not been spending months with the survey and supporting material.

Good survey introductions help increase response rates and gain respondents’ trust. They are a perfect way for respondents to get to know you better, as well as the research topic and the ways they can benefit from it.

Here are some additional tips to create the best survey introductions, regardless of the topic of your research:

• Make the survey anonymous and make sure respondents are aware of that.
• Add a logo to the survey to increase brand recognition.
• Don’t forget to keep the tone of voice on-brand.
• If brand identity allows it, use a familiar tone.
• Offer incentives for survey completion.
• Thank the respondents for completing the survey.

Of course, before writing a survey introduction, you need to create the survey. With our help, amazing questionnaires can be made in no time. Sign up to Survey Planet today, create a survey for free, and add a well-written introduction using our tips!

Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer
• QuestionPro

• Solutions Industries Gaming Automotive Sports and events Education Government Travel & Hospitality Financial Services Healthcare Cannabis Technology Use Case NPS+ Communities Audience Contactless surveys Mobile LivePolls Member Experience GDPR Positive People Science 360 Feedback Surveys
• Resources Blog eBooks Survey Templates Case Studies Training Help center

Home Surveys

Pilot survey: Definition, importance and tips

When conducting an investigation we always want it to be efficient, to meet the goals and for the process to be carried out with the fewest number of difficulties. If you are determined to use surveys as a research method, one way to make sure that everything will go well is to do a pilot survey to help you detect any unforeseen events that may arise.

Every research project involves money, time and effort, so carrying out various tests before starting the process will be of great help, especially when a large number of participants are involved. Let’s get into the world of pilot surveys.

LEARN ABOUT: Candidate Experience Survey

What is a pilot survey?

People think that testing a survey takes a long time and requires a lot of resources to do it. The pilot survey is a strategy that helps to evaluate or test a questionnaire using a smaller sample size than the planned sample.

Any test is better than none, so if you are going to do a survey it is best to test it with the resources you have available, keep in mind that even applying it to a very small group of people you can make significant improvements to your research .

LEARN ABOUT: Survey Mistakes And How to Avoid

Uses of a pilot survey

You can make use of pilot surveys to:

• Apply it to a small group that will not be evaluated in the original survey.
• Consider the responses of a selected group as the first results obtained from the project.
• You can also use a pilot survey as the definitive survey of your research and deliberately ask participants for feedback, for example asking them how clear the instructions are or what questions are difficult to answer.

After obtaining and analyzing results from the pilot survey, logistical, technical and any other issues can be addressed. You can correct the questions on your survey or choose the most appropriate types of questions if, for example, you are going to carry out an online survey.

A pilot survey can be used to detect the lack of training of the personnel to be surveyed, issues with the logistics of distribution and collection of the survey as well as errors in the data recording. These problems can be fixed before taking the actual survey.

Advantages of a Pilot Survey

Conducting a pilot survey before the final survey has great benefits for the researcher. One of the advantages is that they help to detect the elements that could cause a negative impact on the research, such as a bad design that causes abandonment or poorly asked questions that confuse the respondent, causing them to answer incorrectly or to simply not give any answer. Avoid these common survey mistakes.

A pilot survey also helps to assess the accuracy of the instructions in advance, to see if all participants understand them.

Pilot surveys also save financial resources, because if errors are found early, there will be less chance of obtaining unreliable results that could harm our business or having to start from scratch after applying the real survey.

In short, the main goal of a pilot survey is to determine whether a large-scale survey is worth conducting.

Disadvantages 

When doing a preliminary survey, there is the possibility of making inaccurate predictions or hypotheses based on the data from the pilot test.

Successfully completing a pilot survey is not a guarantee of the success of a large-scale survey. Although the results of a pilot test may offer some index of the response rate of your main survey, this does not guarantee that this will be the case, as there are other factors to take into account.

We invite you to follow these recommendations to increase the response rate of your surveys .

Sample questions for your pilot survey

A pilot survey is an excellent opportunity to evaluate your mistakes and directly know your respondents’ opinions about your questionnaire . That’s why it’s a common practice to include a few questions at the end of your main questionnaire to identify areas for improvement in your survey collection tool.

Here are some examples of questions that you can use; these can be answered by the interviewer or by the person being surveyed:

• How long did it take you to complete the survey? (Enumerator)
• 1-5 minutes
• 5- 10 minutes
• +10 minutes

Knowing the length of your survey and how much time it takes for people to answer them is very important. It will allow you to make adjustments such as adding or removing questions, separating them into segments, or identifying if time is perceived as negative or positive to the participants.

• How difficult was it to answer the questions in that survey?
• Neither very easy nor very difficult
• Very difficult

This question will help you assess the degree of comfort that people are having when participating in your study and answering your questionnaire. The stress level caused can cause bias in your research, so it is essential to monitor it at an earlier stage.

• Were there any terms or words you did not know or thought were misused?
• Which? ________

When designing your survey, using far-fetched or strange words for the target audience is usually a common mistake. The pilot phase is a great time to identify them and replace them with more familiar ones to avoid bias or misinterpretation of the question.

• What did you think of the survey design?
• Neither very bad nor very good

Your survey’s design is fundamental. Knowing the opinion of those who are responding will allow you to validate if it is appropriate or if something needs to be adjusted to improve the response rates and quality of the data collected.

• Did you like answering this survey?

With this question, you will be able to know in general terms if the interaction was positive or negative. It can also be helpful to identify possible candidates to participate in another study, a positive perception favors them collaborating again in your surveys in the future.

• Was the applicator precise with the instructions, the purpose of the study, and how they will handle their responses?

Sometimes the mistakes of a study are not only linked to things like sampling bias or other aspects of its design. Human error can be a damaging agent, so a direct evaluation in your pilot survey will be beneficial to better train the people involved in the data collection, especially when conducting a face-to-face survey .

How to do a pilot survey?

An easy way to do pilot surveys is by applying a test survey to a small group of 5 to 10 people who are representative of your target group. If this group of people is not available to you, you can select a group that is as similar as possible. Even with this small number of people, you should be able to identify the main problems with your survey.

Another good practice is to ask these people to answer the pilot survey out loud to find out what they are thinking about when they are answering it or where they have an obstacle. Take the surveys separately, not in groups.

Participants must answer as if they were answering the real survey, that is, if you are going to carry out an online survey , it is important that you apply it, both on a desktop computer, and test it on some devices such as tablets or cell phones, in order that you can be sure that your mobile surveys are adapted to this type of format.

Another point that can be helpful is to observe them while they answer the survey. Look for the parts where they make mistakes, this is an indicator that the questions and/or the survey design is not clear enough and requires you to make improvements. Take note of everything you observe.

Likewise, if a field survey is to be carried out, where the interviewers are going to ask the questions, you must have the respondents trained to formulate the questions of your survey correctly. I share some survey tips for interviewers that will be useful when carrying out the investigation.

Once the participants in the pilot survey have finished, do an analysis of the observations, your notes, and the results of the survey and make the necessary changes. This is generally all you will need unless you make very significant changes that warrant redoing other pilot surveys before you start doing the real research. If the issues have been resolved, go ahead with your project! Good luck!

Are you ready to conduct a pilot survey before starting your big research project? We can help you. Use QuestionPro and access our many features to obtain and analyze valuable data.

MORE LIKE THIS

15 Best Customer Experience Software of 2024

May 2, 2024

Journey Orchestration Platforms: Top 11 Platforms in 2024

Top 12 Employee Pulse Survey Tools Unlocking Insights in 2024

May 1, 2024

Taking Action in CX – Tuesday CX Thoughts

Apr 30, 2024

Other categories

• Academic Research
• Artificial Intelligence
• Assessments
• Brand Awareness
• Case Studies
• Communities
• Consumer Insights
• Customer effort score
• Customer Engagement
• Customer Experience
• Customer Loyalty
• Customer Research
• Customer Satisfaction
• Employee Benefits
• Employee Engagement
• Employee Retention
• Friday Five
• General Data Protection Regulation
• Insights Hub
• Life@QuestionPro
• Market Research
• Mobile diaries
• Mobile Surveys
• New Features
• Online Communities
• Question Types
• Questionnaire
• QuestionPro Products
• Release Notes
• Research Tools and Apps
• Revenue at Risk
• Survey Templates
• Training Tips
• Uncategorized
• Video Learning Series
• What’s Coming Up
• Workforce Intelligence

How to Write a Survey Paper: Brief Overview

Every student wishes there was a shortcut to learning about a subject. Writing a survey paper can be an effective tool for synthesizing and consolidating information on a particular topic to gain mastery over it.

There are several techniques and best practices for writing a successful survey paper. Our team is ready to guide you through the writing process and teach you how to write a paper that will benefit your academic and professional career.

What is a Survey Paper

A survey paper is a type of academic writing that aims to give readers a comprehensive understanding of the current state of research on a particular topic. By synthesizing and analyzing already existing research, a survey paper provides good shortcuts highlighting meaningful achievements and recent advances in the field and shows the gaps where further research might be needed.

The survey paper format includes an introduction that defines the scope of the research domain, followed by a thorough literature review section that summarizes and critiques existing research while showcasing areas for further research. A good survey paper must also provide an overview of commonly used methodologies, approaches, key terms, and recent trends in the field and a clear summary that synthesizes the main findings presented.

Our essay writing service team not only provides the best survey paper example but can also write a custom academic paper based on your specific requirements and needs.

How to Write a Survey Paper: Important Steps

If you have your head in your hands, wondering how to write a survey paper, you must be new here. Luckily, our team of experts got you! Below you will find the steps that will guide you to the best approach to writing a successful survey paper. No more worries about how to research a topic . Let's dive in!

Obviously, the first step is to choose a topic that is both interesting to you and relevant to a large audience. If you are struggling with topic selection, go for only the ones that have the most literature to compose a comprehensive research paper.

Once you have selected your topic, define the scope of your survey paper and the specific research questions that will guide your literature review. This will help you establish boundaries and ensure that your paper is focused and well-structured.

Next, start collecting existing research on your topic through various academic databases and literature reviews. Make sure you are up to date with recent discoveries and advances. Before selecting any work for the survey, make sure the database is credible. Determine what sources are considered trustworthy and reputable within the specific domain.

Continue survey paper writing by selecting the most relevant and significant research pieces to include in your literature overview. Make sure to methodically analyze each source and critically evaluate its relevance, rigor, validity, and contribution to the field.

At this point, you have already undertaken half of the job. Maybe even more since collecting and analyzing the literature is often the most challenging part of writing a survey paper. Now it's time to organize and structure your paper. Follow the well-established outline, give a thorough review, and compose compelling body paragraphs. Don't forget to include detailed methodology and highlight key findings and revolutionary ideas.

Finish off your writing with a powerful conclusion that not only summarizes the key arguments but also indicates future research directions.

Feeling Overwhelmed by All the College Essays?

Our expert writers will ensure that you submit top-quality papers without missing any deadlines!

Survey Paper Outline

The following is a general outline of a survey paper.

• Introduction - with background information on the topic and research questions
• Literature Overview - including relevant research studies and their analysis
• Methodologies and Approaches - detailing the methods used to collect and analyze data in the literature overview
• Findings and Trends - summarizing the key findings and trends from the literature review
• Challenges and Gaps - highlighting the limitations of studies reviewed
• Future Research Direction - exploring future research opportunities and recommendations
• Conclusion - a summary of the research conducted and its significance, along with suggestions for further work in this area.
• References - a list of all the sources cited in the paper, including academic articles and reports.

You can always customize this outline to fit your paper's specific requirements, but none of the components can be eliminated. Our custom essay writer

Further, we can explore survey paper example formats to get a better understanding of what a well-written survey paper looks like. Our custom essay writer can assist in crafting a plagiarism-free essay tailored to meet your unique needs.

Survey Paper Format

Having a basic understanding of an outline for a survey paper is just the beginning. To excel in survey paper writing, it's important to become proficient in academic essay formatting techniques. Have the following as a rule of thumb: make sure each section relates to the others and that the flow of your paper is logical and readable.

Title - You need to come up with a clear and concise title that reflects the main objective of your research question.

Survey paper example title: 'The analysis of recommender systems in E-commerce.'

Abstract - Here, you should state the purpose of your research and summarize key findings in a brief paragraph. The abstract is a shortcut to the paper, so make sure it's informative.

Introduction - This section is a crucial element of an academic essay and should be intriguing and provide background information on the topic, feeding the readers' curiosity.

Literature with benefits and limitations - This section dives into the existing literature on the research question, including relevant studies and their analyses. When reviewing the literature, it is important to highlight both benefits and limitations of existing studies to identify gaps for future research.

Result analysis - In this section, you should present and analyze the results of your survey paper. Make sure to include statistical data, graphs, and charts to support your conclusions.

Conclusion - Just like in any other thesis writing, here you need to sum up the key findings of your survey paper. How it helped advance the research topic, what limitations need to be addressed, and important implications for future research.

Future Research Direction - You can either give this a separate section or include it in a conclusion, but you can never overlook the importance of a future research direction. Distinctly point out areas of limitations and suggest possible avenues for future research.

References - Finally, be sure to include a list of all the sources/references you've used in your research. Without a list of references, your work will lose all its credibility and can no longer be beneficial to other researchers.

Writing a Good Survey Paper: Helpful Tips

After mastering the basics of how to write a good survey paper, there are a few tips to keep in mind. They will help you advance your writing and ensure your survey paper stands out among others.

Select Only Relevant Literature

When conducting research, one can easily get carried away and start hoarding all available literature, which may not necessarily be relevant to your research question. Make sure to stay within the scope of your topic. Clearly articulate your research question, and then select only literature that directly addresses the research question. A few initial readings might not reveal the relevance, so you need a systematic review and filter of the literature that is directly related to the research question.

Use Various Sources and Be Up-to-Date

Our team suggests only using up-to-date material that was published within the last 5 years. Additional sources may be used if they contribute significantly to the research question, but it is important to prioritize current literature.

Use more than 10 research papers. Though narrowing your pool of references to only relevant literature is important, it's also crucial that you have a sufficient number of sources.

Rely on Reputable Sources

Writing a survey paper is a challenge. Don't forget that it is quality over quantity. Be sure to choose reputable sources that have been peer-reviewed and are recognized within your field of research. Having a large number of various research papers does not mean that your survey paper is of high quality.

Construct a Concise Research Question

Having a short and to-the-point research question not only helps the audience understand the direction of your paper but also helps you stay focused on a clear goal. With a clear research question, you will have an easier time selecting the relevant literature, avoiding unnecessary information, and maintaining the structure of your paper.

Use an Appropriate Format

The scholarly world appreciates when researchers follow a standard format when presenting their survey papers. Therefore, it is important to use a suitable and consistent format that adheres to the guidelines provided by your academic institution or field.

Our paper survey template offers a clear structure that can aid in organizing your thoughts and sources, as well as ensuring that you cover all the necessary components of a survey paper.

Don't forget to use appropriate heading, font, spacing, margins, and referencing style. If there is a strict word limit, be sure to adhere to it and use concise wording.

Use Logical Sequence

A survey paper is different from a regular research paper. Every element of the essay needs to relate to the research question and tie into the overall objective of the paper.

Writing research papers takes a lot of effort and attention to detail. You will have to revise, edit and proofread your work several times. If you are struggling with any aspect of the writing process, just say, ' Write my research paper for me ,' and our team of tireless writers will be happy to assist you.

Starting Point: Survey Paper Example Topics

Learning how to write a survey paper is important, but it is only one aspect of the process.

Now you need a powerful research question. To help get you started, we have compiled a list of survey paper example topics that may inspire you.

• Survey of Evolution and Challenges of Electronic Search Engines
• A Comprehensive Survey Paper on Machine Learning Algorithms
• Survey of Leaf Image Analysis for Plant Species Recognition
• Advances in Natural Language Processing for Sentiment Analysis
• Emerging Trends in Cybersecurity Threat Detection
• A Comprehensive Survey of Techniques in Big Data Analytics in Healthcare
• A Survey of Advances in Digital Art and Virtual Reality
• A Systematic Review of the Impact of Social Media Marketing Strategies on Consumer Behavior
• A Survey of AI Systems in Artistic Expression
• Exploring New Research Methods and Ethical Considerations in Anthropology
• Exploring Data-driven Approaches for Performance Analysis and Decision Making in Sports
• A Survey of Benefits of Optimizing Performance through Diet and Supplementation
• A Critical Review of Existing Research on The Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity Conservation Strategies
• Investigating the Future of Blockchain Technology for Secure Data Sharing
• A Critical Review of the Literature on Mental Health and Innovation in the Workplace

Final Thoughts

Next time you are asked to write a survey paper, remember it is not just following an iterative process of gathering and summarizing existing research; it requires a deep understanding of the subject matter as well as critical analysis skills. Creative thinking and innovative approaches also play a key role in producing high-quality survey papers.

Our expert writers can help you navigate the complex process of writing a survey paper, from topic selection to data analysis and interpretation.

Finding It Difficult to Write a Survey Paper?

Our essay writing service offers plagiarism-free papers tailored to your specific needs.

Are you looking for advice on how to create an engaging and informative survey paper? This frequently asked questions (FAQ) section offers valuable responses to common inquiries that researchers frequently come across when writing a survey paper. Let's delve into it!

What is Survey Paper in Ph.D.?

What is the difference between survey paper and literature review paper, related articles.

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications
• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

What the data says about crime in the U.S.

A growing share of Americans say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress to address this year. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (58%) hold that view today, up from 47% at the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency in 2021.

We conducted this analysis to learn more about U.S. crime patterns and how those patterns have changed over time.

The analysis relies on statistics published by the FBI, which we accessed through the Crime Data Explorer , and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), which we accessed through the  National Crime Victimization Survey data analysis tool .

To measure public attitudes about crime in the U.S., we relied on survey data from Pew Research Center and Gallup.

Additional details about each data source, including survey methodologies, are available by following the links in the text of this analysis.

With the issue likely to come up in this year’s presidential election, here’s what we know about crime in the United States, based on the latest available data from the federal government and other sources.

How much crime is there in the U.S.?

It’s difficult to say for certain. The  two primary sources of government crime statistics  – the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) – paint an incomplete picture.

The FBI publishes  annual data  on crimes that have been reported to law enforcement, but not crimes that haven’t been reported. Historically, the FBI has also only published statistics about a handful of specific violent and property crimes, but not many other types of crime, such as drug crime. And while the FBI’s data is based on information from thousands of federal, state, county, city and other police departments, not all law enforcement agencies participate every year. In 2022, the most recent full year with available statistics, the FBI received data from 83% of participating agencies .

BJS, for its part, tracks crime by fielding a  large annual survey of Americans ages 12 and older and asking them whether they were the victim of certain types of crime in the past six months. One advantage of this approach is that it captures both reported and unreported crimes. But the BJS survey has limitations of its own. Like the FBI, it focuses mainly on a handful of violent and property crimes. And since the BJS data is based on after-the-fact interviews with crime victims, it cannot provide information about one especially high-profile type of offense: murder.

All those caveats aside, looking at the FBI and BJS statistics side-by-side  does  give researchers a good picture of U.S. violent and property crime rates and how they have changed over time. In addition, the FBI is transitioning to a new data collection system – known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System – that eventually will provide national information on a much larger set of crimes , as well as details such as the time and place they occur and the types of weapons involved, if applicable.

Which kinds of crime are most and least common?

Property crime in the U.S. is much more common than violent crime. In 2022, the FBI reported a total of 1,954.4 property crimes per 100,000 people, compared with 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people.  

By far the most common form of property crime in 2022 was larceny/theft, followed by motor vehicle theft and burglary. Among violent crimes, aggravated assault was the most common offense, followed by robbery, rape, and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter.

BJS tracks a slightly different set of offenses from the FBI, but it finds the same overall patterns, with theft the most common form of property crime in 2022 and assault the most common form of violent crime.

How have crime rates in the U.S. changed over time?

Both the FBI and BJS data show dramatic declines in U.S. violent and property crime rates since the early 1990s, when crime spiked across much of the nation.

Using the FBI data, the violent crime rate fell 49% between 1993 and 2022, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (-74%), aggravated assault (-39%) and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter (-34%). It’s not possible to calculate the change in the rape rate during this period because the FBI  revised its definition of the offense in 2013 .

The FBI data also shows a 59% reduction in the U.S. property crime rate between 1993 and 2022, with big declines in the rates of burglary (-75%), larceny/theft (-54%) and motor vehicle theft (-53%).

Using the BJS statistics, the declines in the violent and property crime rates are even steeper than those captured in the FBI data. Per BJS, the U.S. violent and property crime rates each fell 71% between 1993 and 2022.

While crime rates have fallen sharply over the long term, the decline hasn’t always been steady. There have been notable increases in certain kinds of crime in some years, including recently.

In 2020, for example, the U.S. murder rate saw its largest single-year increase on record – and by 2022, it remained considerably higher than before the coronavirus pandemic. Preliminary data for 2023, however, suggests that the murder rate fell substantially last year .

How do Americans perceive crime in their country?

Americans tend to believe crime is up, even when official data shows it is down.

In 23 of 27 Gallup surveys conducted since 1993 , at least 60% of U.S. adults have said there is more crime nationally than there was the year before, despite the downward trend in crime rates during most of that period.

While perceptions of rising crime at the national level are common, fewer Americans believe crime is up in their own communities. In every Gallup crime survey since the 1990s, Americans have been much less likely to say crime is up in their area than to say the same about crime nationally.

Public attitudes about crime differ widely by Americans’ party affiliation, race and ethnicity, and other factors . For example, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are much more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress this year (68% vs. 47%), according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

How does crime in the U.S. differ by demographic characteristics?

Some groups of Americans are more likely than others to be victims of crime. In the  2022 BJS survey , for example, younger people and those with lower incomes were far more likely to report being the victim of a violent crime than older and higher-income people.

There were no major differences in violent crime victimization rates between male and female respondents or between those who identified as White, Black or Hispanic. But the victimization rate among Asian Americans (a category that includes Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders) was substantially lower than among other racial and ethnic groups.

The same BJS survey asks victims about the demographic characteristics of the offenders in the incidents they experienced.

In 2022, those who are male, younger people and those who are Black accounted for considerably larger shares of perceived offenders in violent incidents than their respective shares of the U.S. population. Men, for instance, accounted for 79% of perceived offenders in violent incidents, compared with 49% of the nation’s 12-and-older population that year. Black Americans accounted for 25% of perceived offenders in violent incidents, about twice their share of the 12-and-older population (12%).

As with all surveys, however, there are several potential sources of error, including the possibility that crime victims’ perceptions about offenders are incorrect.

How does crime in the U.S. differ geographically?

There are big geographic differences in violent and property crime rates.

For example, in 2022, there were more than 700 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in New Mexico and Alaska. That compares with fewer than 200 per 100,000 people in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine, according to the FBI.

The FBI notes that various factors might influence an area’s crime rate, including its population density and economic conditions.

What percentage of crimes are reported to police? What percentage are solved?

Most violent and property crimes in the U.S. are not reported to police, and most of the crimes that  are  reported are not solved.

In its annual survey, BJS asks crime victims whether they reported their crime to police. It found that in 2022, only 41.5% of violent crimes and 31.8% of household property crimes were reported to authorities. BJS notes that there are many reasons why crime might not be reported, including fear of reprisal or of “getting the offender in trouble,” a feeling that police “would not or could not do anything to help,” or a belief that the crime is “a personal issue or too trivial to report.”

Most of the crimes that are reported to police, meanwhile,  are not solved , at least based on an FBI measure known as the clearance rate . That’s the share of cases each year that are closed, or “cleared,” through the arrest, charging and referral of a suspect for prosecution, or due to “exceptional” circumstances such as the death of a suspect or a victim’s refusal to cooperate with a prosecution. In 2022, police nationwide cleared 36.7% of violent crimes that were reported to them and 12.1% of the property crimes that came to their attention.

Which crimes are most likely to be reported to police? Which are most likely to be solved?

Around eight-in-ten motor vehicle thefts (80.9%) were reported to police in 2022, making them by far the most commonly reported property crime tracked by BJS. Household burglaries and trespassing offenses were reported to police at much lower rates (44.9% and 41.2%, respectively), while personal theft/larceny and other types of theft were only reported around a quarter of the time.

Among violent crimes – excluding homicide, which BJS doesn’t track – robbery was the most likely to be reported to law enforcement in 2022 (64.0%). It was followed by aggravated assault (49.9%), simple assault (36.8%) and rape/sexual assault (21.4%).

The list of crimes  cleared  by police in 2022 looks different from the list of crimes reported. Law enforcement officers were generally much more likely to solve violent crimes than property crimes, according to the FBI.

The most frequently solved violent crime tends to be homicide. Police cleared around half of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters (52.3%) in 2022. The clearance rates were lower for aggravated assault (41.4%), rape (26.1%) and robbery (23.2%).

When it comes to property crime, law enforcement agencies cleared 13.0% of burglaries, 12.4% of larcenies/thefts and 9.3% of motor vehicle thefts in 2022.

Are police solving more or fewer crimes than they used to?

Nationwide clearance rates for both violent and property crime are at their lowest levels since at least 1993, the FBI data shows.

Police cleared a little over a third (36.7%) of the violent crimes that came to their attention in 2022, down from nearly half (48.1%) as recently as 2013. During the same period, there were decreases for each of the four types of violent crime the FBI tracks:

• Police cleared 52.3% of reported murders and nonnegligent homicides in 2022, down from 64.1% in 2013.
• They cleared 41.4% of aggravated assaults, down from 57.7%.
• They cleared 26.1% of rapes, down from 40.6%.
• They cleared 23.2% of robberies, down from 29.4%.

The pattern is less pronounced for property crime. Overall, law enforcement agencies cleared 12.1% of reported property crimes in 2022, down from 19.7% in 2013. The clearance rate for burglary didn’t change much, but it fell for larceny/theft (to 12.4% in 2022 from 22.4% in 2013) and motor vehicle theft (to 9.3% from 14.2%).

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Nov. 20, 2020.

• Criminal Justice

John Gramlich is an associate director at Pew Research Center .

8 facts about Black Lives Matter

#blacklivesmatter turns 10, support for the black lives matter movement has dropped considerably from its peak in 2020, fewer than 1% of federal criminal defendants were acquitted in 2022, before release of video showing tyre nichols’ beating, public views of police conduct had improved modestly, most popular.

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Age & Generations
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Economy & Work
• Family & Relationships
• Gender & LGBTQ
• Immigration & Migration
• International Affairs
• Internet & Technology
• Methodological Research
• News Habits & Media
• Non-U.S. Governments
• Other Topics
• Politics & Policy
• Race & Ethnicity
• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

Copyright 2024 Pew Research Center

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Cookie Settings

Reprints, Permissions & Use Policy