There's always a lot of focus given to how to write survey questions. There are five common online survey pitfalls that come when writing survey questions:


Complex questions
It can be to easy to get caught up in the purpose of your survey and become over zealous. However, when you write satisfaction questionnaires with complex questions, you get unreliable survey results. Take this likert scale survey example:


Sample Satisfaction Survey Question
At first glance, this does not seem like a complex question. However, at closer examination, you realize it's vague and lacks context. Who's point of view is it from? In addition, not all of your survey respondents will understand what you mean by soft drink distribution.

Like most other common survey pitfalls, it's easy to fix complex survey questions. Start by asking yourself what you're really trying to understand or uncover, then focus on using ordinary words whenever possible and write survey questions at the appropriate reading level for your survey respondents. The average American reads and writes at a 7th or 8th grade level.

This is how you would alter the previous question to make it less complex.


Sample Satisfaction Survey Question
Next week, look forward to the other common mistakes when it comes to how to write survey questions.