Qualtrics users are constantly asking us how to write better survey questions. Here are a few tips to remember while writing questions:

Write to Respondents: Remember your audience when writing a survey. Using words that are unfamiliar to them can cause problems. Industry-specific jargon, technical data, and acronyms are not effective for all audiences. If your audience does not understand the survey, then your results will be meaningless. If you aren't sure if a question is clear, ask someone from your desired population read over it and give you feedback.

Avoid Forcing Answers: Sometimes respondents may not want or be able to provide the information requested. Privacy is an important issue to most people. Questions about income, occupation, finances, family life, personal hygiene, and beliefs (personal, political, religious) can be too intrusive and rejected by the respondent.

It is usually a good idea to allow respondents to not answer questions that may be considered sensitive.