Introduction

A survey is a series of questions designed to discover people's opinions, habits, beliefs, awareness, or knowledge. This page discusses how to prepare and distribute a survey.

Planning your questions

Prepare ten to fifteen questions for your survey. Don't ask essay-style, open-ended questions when you want to be able to easily analyze your survey results. Instead, provide survey takers with a selection of answers.

Question Types

• • Multiple Choice

    • • How many hours do you work during the week?

        • None

        • 1-20

        • 21-40

        • More than 40 hours

      • What is your gender?

        • Male

        • Female

        • Other

• • Yes/No/I don't know

    • • Tip: When surveying knowledge, always include an "I don't know" option. This prevents answers from being skewed.

      • How many countries are in the European Union?

        • 28

        • 18

        • I don't know

• • Rating Scale 

    • • Tip: It's important to use the same scale on multiple rating scale questions in order to avoid confusion and distorted answers. 

      • On a scale of 1 to 5, rate your satisfaction with your school's class sizes. 

        • 1 - Very Dissatisfied

        • 2 - Dissatisfied

        • 3 - Neutral

        • 4 - Satisfied

        • 5 - Very Satisfied

• • Nominal Choices

    • • Tip: Always include an "Other" option. This allows you to receive answers for items you didn't think of.

      • Circle all of the fruit juices you drink each week:

        • Orange

        • Apple

        • Grapefruit

        • Grape

        • Mango

        • Other(s): ______________________

Structuring questions

The beginning questions in the survey should distinguish the groups you're studying. For example, if you're studying how race or ethnicity affects opinions or habits, then your first question should determine race or ethnicity.

Provide clear questions and consistent answers. It's important that questions don't have answers that are too similar to one another. Use the tips above for Yes/No/I Don't Know questions or questions that use a rating scale.

Distributing a survey

Give clear instructions. At the beginning of the survey, write a short introduction for your survey explaining its purpose. Tell respondents how to complete the survey. See the sample survey below for an example.

Who will you survey? You may decide to survey a wide group of people in order to get a variety of opinions. Or you may want to select a narrower group so you can study the opinions or beliefs of that specific group. 

How many people will you distribute the survey to? A larger sample will be more representative of the group at large, but sometimes you may have limited capabilities. If you're working with a group, each person in the group can survey a certain number of people. 

How will you distribute the survey? You will also need to decide how to distribute your survey. Some options are: 

• • Email 

  • Social media

  • In person

  • By phone

  • By mail