Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

Surveying is an art and is best done with full knowledge of your goals and target audience. Offhand questions are likely not beneficial for a quality survey.

My personal preference is for open-ended questions. If I were in your shoes, I would develop a short preliminary survey asking a few close ended questions, such as how old are you and how much of your shopping you do online (possibly asking what kinds of things they buy online, e.g. electronics, food, clothing, utensils…). And I've asked them to express in their own words why they choose to buy online and why they choose to buy other things locally. I would use the responses to develop a more formal second survey.

Generally speaking, with regards to school assignments, I encourage you to think in terms of future employment. In other words, you might use a strategy to try to make the teacher as happy as possible, so you'll get as good great as possible. But here's another way to look at it. You would also like to develop skills and demonstrate capabilities which will help you to land job interviews and hope whatever position. You might ask yourself, what might a future employer be looking for? How can I do this project in a diligent and thoughtful manner so that a potential future employer will you be in a positive light?

Good luck.

How will you compare satisfaction, efficiency, expenses, and quality? What will they be relative to?

Survey questions need to be carefully considered, and carefully worded, to be sure you are getting the precise information you're seeking. You need to consult with an experienced market research professional ... and specify exactly what you want to learn and how the results (of your research) will be used. It's very easy to bias your respondents with imprecise use of the terms in your questions -- or to ask too many questions (and thereby invite respondent fatigue).