Writing effective questions for surveys.
a brief ‘how-to’ by Oberg Research, Inc.
We ask our visitors, attendees, and participants for information so that we can answer bigger
questions about our institutions. The checklist below can assist you in writing questions
which provide you with responses that are going to help you answer your institutional needs.
 Ask yourself: “Why am I asking people anything anyway?”
Be as precise as possible.
 Ask yourself: “What do I need to know from my participant in order
to make a decision/respond to stakeholder request?” Then ask
about precisely that.
 Ask several questions around the same topic.
 Provide structure to open-ended questions.
 Be as precise as possible.
 One aspect of a topic per question. ‘And’ should not appear.
 Do not ask questions about things you cannot change or already
have confidence about.
You may notice that structure and precision is important when asking questions. Providing
structure to your question is not leading. Rather you are providing a way for your survey
taker to organize their thoughts. Think about when you are asked “How was your day
today?”. Your mind goes blank. You are quite sure you were productive, but where do you
start to answer the question? Now, if the question were phrased “How was your meeting
with X?”, it is much easier to formulate your response. You also now know that the person
asking the question “How was your day today?” actually wants to know specifically about the
meeting. They are not leaving it to chance that you might talk about the meeting. They are
asking you specifically.
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© Oberg Research, Inc.
Example
Program funder wants to know impact of your historical preservation programs on
participants (who are professionals) and the local community which they serve.
You ask your participants:
1. This preservation program will help me change the communities… 1 2 3 4 5
Average = 4.8
Please tell us more….. That was really useful. Thanks.
You were probably expecting the participants to fill in “how” the program will help them
change their community under “Please tell us more”. Rather than hoping participants will
fill in the blanks with the information you need, ask for the information. Be precise and
provide structure.
1. It is important to me that this preservation program summarized recent best practices for
involving my community in historical preservation………… 1 2 3 4 5 Average = 4.8
2. Please rank the following best practices in the order of feasibility for your community; 1 =
most feasible and 4 = least feasible
____ Host a community action day (6% indicated “1”)
____ Refine tours to include focus on historic preservation (33% indicated “1”)
____ Develop hands on program about historic preservation for children (52% indicated “1”)
____ Work with high school debate club to hold debate on pros/cons of historic preservation
(9% indicated “1”)
3. Please list two ideas or actions from today’s program which will engage your community in
historical preservation?
a.
________________________________ b. ________________________________
You can now report to your funder that your program focus on best practices fits with the
needs of your participants, as indicated by participants indicating strong agreement with
importance of summarizing recent best practices (average 4.8 on a 1-5 scale). You can also
report that 52% of participants, a majority, consider developing hands on program about
historic preservation for children as most feasible, while only 6% indicated hosting a
community action day is most feasible for reaching (impacting) their communities – which
can influence any programming decisions - and that (the results of 3a and 3b) reveal that
participants have already considered new ways to engage their communities. Therefore you
can confidently say that you are positively impacting your participants, and there is a
greater chance that your participants will bring historic preservation information to their
communities than if you had not held the program.
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© Oberg Research, Inc.