Survey Questions Written by an AI Tool SOCL 3633 Research Methods · Lab 7 · Midwestern State University

AI tools will write survey questions on any topic in a few seconds. Are the questions any good? Today a free AI tool drafts ten survey questions on the concept from your research question. You find the problems in each question and repair the three worst. Your grade is for the quality of your diagnosis and repairs, not for what the tool wrote. Work through the tabs in order. Before you leave, you paste your response sheet into the Lab 7 submission on D2L.

Keep this page open until you submit. Your entries are not saved anywhere. If you close or reload the page, they are lost.

Get set up

Log in to the lab computer with your MSU account and open this page from the Week 7 module on D2L.
In a new browser tab, open a free AI chatbot, such as Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, or the free version of ChatGPT. Do not use a paid version.
Do not type your name, your student ID, or anything else about yourself into the AI tool.
Have your Writing assignment 3 research question in front of you.

The concept you want to measure

Choose one concept from your research question and write it as a short phrase, for example "job satisfaction among hourly workers" or "sense of belonging on campus."

Eight common problems with survey questions

The first six are the problems from Tuesday. The last two are new today. Use this list in the Diagnose tab.

Generate ten questions

Copy this prompt into the AI tool and send it. Use it exactly as written, with your concept filled in.

Do not ask the tool to check or improve its questions, and do not regenerate until you get better ones. The point is to see what an AI tool produces on its first try.

Record the tool and the exact prompt you sent. This is your AI-use statement for this lab.

AI tool used

For example, "Google Gemini, free version."

The exact prompt you sent

The copy button fills this in. If you changed anything before sending, edit it here so it matches what you sent.

Paste the ten questions below, one per box, each with its answer choices. Paste them exactly as the tool wrote them. If the tool wrote a question without answer choices, paste it anyway.

Backup set: use only if your instructor tells you to

If the AI tools do not work on the lab computers, your instructor will tell you to use a backup set of ten questions on the concept "trust in news media." The button replaces anything you have entered on this tab.

Diagnose each question

For each question, check every problem that applies, or check "No problems." Many questions have more than one problem. For each question, ask: if a person answered this, would I know where that person stands on my concept?

Your tally

questions marked "No problems"

questions diagnosed, of the ones you pasted

Check your questions above to fill in the tally.

Repair the three worst questions

Choose the three questions with the most serious problems for measuring your concept. Rewrite each one with its answer choices. Your repaired questions are candidates for questions 4 to 10 of your Lab 8 survey.

Most repairs make a question more specific: one topic per question, a clear and recent time span, plain words, answer choices that do not overlap and fit everyone, and wording that asks about your concept directly.

Lab 7 response sheet

Questions 1 to 3 are filled in from the earlier tabs. Answer questions 4 to 6 in complete sentences. Then assemble your answers and paste them into the Lab 7 submission on D2L. Nothing is sent anywhere until you paste it.

Your name

1. AI-use statement: the tool you used and your exact prompt.

Filled in from the Generate tab.

2. Your ten questions with the problems you marked, and your tally.

Filled in from the Diagnose tab.

3. Three repairs: the original question, your repaired version, the problem you removed, and how the original would have distorted your data.

Filled in from the Repair tab.

4. Pick one question you marked "Does not measure your concept." What does it measure instead, and what question would measure your concept?

Two to three sentences. If you marked none, pick the question that comes closest to missing your concept and explain.

5. Which problems were easy to catch, and which needed you to know your concept? What does that tell you about which parts of writing a survey an AI tool can do?

Three to four sentences.

6. Which of your repaired questions will you use in your Lab 8 survey (questions 4 to 10)?

One to two sentences. Name the question and give one reason.

Before you leave: keep a copy of your repaired questions. Paste the assembled text into a document in your campus storage as well as into D2L. You will use the repairs in Lab 8 on Thursday, March 11.

Sources

Bernard, H. Russell, and Amber Wutich. 2026. Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Chapter 9, "Fourteen Rules for Question Wording."
Pew Research Center. 2025. American Trends Panel Wave 165 topline, survey conducted March 10 to 16, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/SR_25.05.08_media-trust_topline.pdf
Schaeffer, Nora Cate, and Stanley Presser. 2003. "The Science of Asking Questions." Annual Review of Sociology 29:65-88.

The eight problems condense the textbook's rules and Schaeffer and Presser's review. The backup set was written for this course to resemble typical AI-drafted questions; one of its questions uses Pew Research Center's wording.