Designing and Writing Questions for Surveys: Guidelines and Recommendations

June 9-13, 2025, 1:00pm-4:00pm EDT

This workshop distills research about survey questions to principles that can be applied to write survey questions that are clear and obtain reliable answers. The workshop provides students with tools to use in diagnosing problems in survey questions and in writing their own survey questions. Sessions combine lecture with group exercises and discussion. The lecture provides guidelines for writing and revising survey questions and illustrates how to revise troubled questions. Assignments require that students analyze problematic questions, revise them, and administer them to fellow students. Sessions consider both questions about events and behaviors and questions about subjective phenomena (such as attitudes, evaluations, and internal states). This course gives practical guidance to those who have written survey questions but who are not familiar with research on question design, those who are just beginning to design survey instruments, and those who use survey data but do not themselves design survey instruments.

Jennifer (Jen) Dykema is an Associate Professor of Sociology and the Faculty Director of the University of Wisconsin Survey Center (UWSC). Jen’s research focuses on survey methodology, identifying sources of errors produced in the process of gathering standardized measurements and developing and implementing methods to reduce those errors. This work examines three main areas of inquiry: questionnaire design, methods to increase response rates, and interviewer-respondent interaction. As Faculty Director, Jen oversees a program of methodological research that incorporates experiments and evaluations in ongoing projects. Her research has appeared in a number of journals including Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, Social Science Computer Review, and Field Methods, and edited volumes including the Handbook of Survey Research and Advances in Questionnaire Design, Development, Evaluation and Testing. She recently co-edited “Interviewer Effects from a Total Survey Error Perspective (2020).” Jen served as the Conference Chair for the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in 2017, and in 2022 she was selected as a Fellow of the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR). Jen earned her B.A. in psychology and sociology from the University of Michigan, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Summer Institute in Survey Research Techniques provides rigorous and high quality graduate level training in all phases of survey research. The noncredit courses are open to all. The courses are live online via Zoom. Registration and payment are required. Course fees are based on the total number of hours assigned to each course, the hours are listed on the course description. The 2025 schedule lists additional courses. If you have any questions regarding the application process, please use the online contact form or email the Summer Institute at [email protected] .