Writing Effective Surveys – Open-Ended Questions

Ugh – I have to peel my face off my desk to write this entry – I’ve had a sore throat for the past 3 or 4 days.  It’s pretty miserable… (as I spray 5 more shots of a numbing agent into my throat) – bah!  It does nothing!

When writing surveys, confusing people is usually discouraged… if you want accurate information (if you want inaccurate information, you could get in some legal trouble).

Open-ended questions on a survey  could give you the best and the worst information.  If you ask about what people think about cows grazing on the side of the road, you could get an answer like:

I think cows are cute and cuddly.  I once had a cow teddy bear… or is it teddy cow?  Anyways, I really hate people who drive and don’t pay attention.  It is bad.  I like cookies.

On the other hand, you could get an answer like:

Cows on the side of the road distract drivers.  An effective way to reduce distractions would be to set a minimum distance from which the cows can graze in relation to the highway.

Unfortunately, no one is perfect.  Avoid open-ended questions at all costs.  Problems with these questions:

• Bad handwriting
• Poor grammar
• Useless information
• Takes time to answer
• Too long of an answer
• Too short of an answer
• Vague answers

These questions sometimes aren’t possible to avoid – so how would you structure one of these questions?   Maybe you should try something like this:

Grazing cows are a leading cause of traffic accidents because drivers get distracted.  Do you find the cows distracting and what would remedy the problem?

Granted, this isn’t the best example, but you see where I am going with this?  List specific issues – then see if you can narrow them down into a multiple choice question.  If you can’t do that, settle for an open-ended question.