How to Create a Questionnaire: Guide & Examples

The foundation of an online survey or personal interview is a well-designed questionnaire. Only this way will you obtain the necessary results for your empirical research, which will lead your bachelor's or master's thesis to success. In the following guide, we have compiled all the important information to help you create an optimal questionnaire.

Before the Questionnaire: Clarify Your Research Goal!

Before you create the questionnaire, you should define the goal of your survey. Above all, one key question stands out: What insights should be gained through the questionnaire? What matters here is your research question and the hypotheses derived from it. After all, the results of your survey should provide the right answers to your research question and hypothesis.

Example:
For your thesis, you've chosen the topic "The connection between regular consumption of audiovisual news and the mental state of its consumers". From this, you develop the research question "Does high news consumption have a negative impact on users' mental health?"

To answer your research question and confirm or disprove subsequent hypotheses, you can use the following 3 questions in your questionnaire:

1. How often do you consume news?
   (Answer options: multiple times daily, daily, weekly, monthly, less than monthly)
2. Which media do you use for your news?
   (Answer options: TV, print, radio, internet, other media)
3. Have you ever felt mentally worse after consuming news?
   (Answer options: yes, no, don't know)

This example illustrates that it is extremely important to define the overarching goal before creating the questionnaire. This way, the questionnaire will be optimally aligned for your empirical research.

Once you've clarified the basic purpose of your survey, you can now design the structure, questions, and answers for your questionnaire.

 

Structure and Layout of the Questionnaire

The right structure and logical layout is the essential foundation for a good questionnaire. This differs in an online survey at certain points from that of a personal interview. Nevertheless, the basic structure is always the same (in a personal interview, for example, you could conduct the introduction verbally).

A questionnaire should be structured according to the following scheme:
 

1. Introduction
   At the beginning of the questionnaire, you can write a brief personal introduction (Who are you? Why are you conducting the survey?). This increases the motivation of respondents to participate in your survey. Additionally, you could provide instructions for filling out the questionnaire and explain complex topics at this point. If you ask for personal data in the following questions, you should obtain consent for the storage and processing of the data and note that you are processing the data anonymously.
   
   Examples:
   What is the content of the survey? Why are you conducting the survey? Who are you and what are you studying? Definition of complex terms.
   
    
2. Main Section
   This section contains the substantive questions and answer options for your survey. Think carefully about what you need to answer your research question or hypotheses. Take enough time for preparation—then your survey will be a success. In terms of order, it makes sense to start with simple, general questions first. After that, you can gradually ask more complex questions.
   
   Examples:
   How often do you consume news? (Simple question), Which media do you use? (Simple question), Have you ever felt mentally worse after consuming news? (More complex question)
   
    
3. Demographic Information
   Following the main section (with the substantive questions), the section with demographic information comes next. The most important characteristics you can ask about include: age, gender, nationality, highest level of education, place of residence, net income, occupation, and religion. This allows you to evaluate the results of your survey and compare them in relation to different characteristics.
   
   Examples:
   If you want to find out whether younger and older people have different opinions on a topic, you obviously need to ask at least about "age."
   
    
4. Conclusion
   At the end of the questionnaire, you can thank the respondents and allow for comments or questions. If you are running a raffle as a thank you, you can ask for an email address or display a coupon code at this point, for example.

 

How You Phrase Your Questions Matters!

The way you phrase your questions can influence the content of respondents' answers. Therefore, you must ensure that your questions are worded neutrally. Additionally, you should consider the following when phrasing your questions:

• Short and concise questions
• Use simple and clear language
• No loaded questions (What do you think of that stupid ...)
• No double negatives (Don't you think it's wrong that capital punishment continues to be banned?)
• Address only one subject matter in a single question
• No leading questions (Don't you also think that ...)

You should of course also consider these points when phrasing your answer options. The following chapter explains what specific answer options are possible.

Types of Questions and Answer Options

When designing your questions and answers in the questionnaire, you can choose from a variety of different question types. Depending on what topic you want to ask about, you must weigh which option is best for your question.

Basically, you can choose from the following types:
 

1. Closed Questions / Multiple Choice
   With this type of question, participants can choose from a certain number of answers. The advantage is that the answers can be evaluated very quickly and easily. However, you don't get any new substantive feedback from this. This type of question/answer is therefore increasingly used in quantitative research.
   
   For closed questions, there is both the option for participants to select only one answer (single choice) or to select multiple answers (multiple choice).
   
   Example for single choice:
   Question: What is your favorite city?
   Answers (select one): Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Rome.
   
   Example for multiple choice:
   Question: In which cities have you ever taken a vacation?
   Answers (select multiple): Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Rome.
   
    
2. Open-Ended Questions / Free Text Answers
   With this type of question, participants are not given specific answers to choose from. They can thus formulate new opinions and ideas as answers. Because of their open nature, the answers cannot be standardized for evaluation. They are increasingly used in qualitative research.
   
   Example:
   Question: What is the most important reason for you to take a vacation in a city?
   Answer: _______
   
    
3. Semi-Open Questions (Mixed Form)
   Aside from closed or open questions, you can also use a mixed form in your questionnaire. The basis for this is a closed question (multiple choice), which is then supplemented with a free answer option ("Other response" or "Other"). This has the advantage that you can standardize most of your answers for evaluation, but still allow participants to contribute their own ideas and opinions. This form of question is conceivable as both single choice and multiple choice.
   
   Example for single choice:
   Question: What is your favorite city?
   Answers (select one): Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Other response: _______
   
   Example for multiple choice:
   Question: In which cities have you ever taken a vacation?
   Answers (select multiple): Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Other response: _______
   
    
4. Scale Questions
   Scale questions are officially closed questions and fall into the single choice category. They are therefore fully standardized for evaluation. With this type of question, you give respondents the opportunity to weigh between 2 predefined poles (e.g., "good / bad" or "much / little") and convey a sentiment or opinion based on this.
   
   Depending on whether respondents should have the option to give a neutral answer, you can use either an even number of values (neutral answer not possible) or an odd number (neutral answer possible) for your scales. For odd-numbered scales, it is recommended to use a 5-point or 7-point scale. For even-numbered scales, a 6-point scale is the most commonly used option. Scales with more points often become too complex and participants can no longer differentiate the individual levels in detail.
   
   Example of a scale question:
   Statement: Paris is a great place to take a vacation.
   Answers: strongly agree, tend to agree, neither nor, tend to disagree, strongly disagree.
   
   The most commonly used scales include:

• strongly agree, tend to agree, neither nor, tend to disagree, strongly disagree
• very good, good, satisfactory, acceptable, poor, failing
• Point allocation from 1 to 6 or 1 to 10
• applies, somewhat applies, neither nor, somewhat does not apply, does not apply
• never, rarely, occasionally, often, always
• not, little, moderately, fairly, very
• does not apply, applies little, applies moderately, applies fairly, applies very much
• very likely, somewhat likely, neither nor, somewhat unlikely, very unlikely
   

Test First, Then Start Your Survey

To test your questionnaire before the actual survey, a so-called pretest is recommended. You test the questionnaire in a field trial one or more times with different test subjects. They review the questions and answer options and give you feedback. Based on this feedback, you revise the content of your questionnaire. You continue this process until the questionnaire can be filled out without any problems and delivers the desired results. Then the actual survey can be conducted.

Here's how you could proceed:

1. Create your first draft of the questionnaire
2. Test it yourself and revise if necessary
3. Send questionnaire to test group and collect feedback
4. Revise the questionnaire
5. Send questionnaire to test group again and collect feedback
6. If positive feedback: start the survey, otherwise revise again

 

Online Survey or Personal Interview?

Now that you've learned the essential information about creating a questionnaire, you need to decide whether to conduct an online survey or a personal interview. Both options are possible for empirical research in thesis work. However, they offer different strengths and weaknesses that you should consider when making your choice. Overall, a questionnaire can be used in the following methods:

• Online survey
• Personal interview / In-person interview
• Telephone survey (rarely used in thesis work)
• Written survey (rarely used in thesis work)

 

Use questionnaires in online surveys and personal interviews: