Question Types

Adding an Open-Ended Essay Text Box to Your Survey

Updated

Give respondents a multi-line essay box for longer written answers by enabling the long-answer option on an open text question.

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Overview

Give respondents a multi-line essay box for longer written answers by enabling the long-answer option on an open text question. Use it when a single line would cut people off mid-thought.

Step-by-step

  1. Add the question — click + Question and choose Open Text. The open text editor with the long-answer toggle

  2. Enable Long answer — tick Long answer (multi-line essay box) in the editor. The single-line input becomes a resizable text area.

  3. Ask a focused question — a big box invites rambling. "Describe a time our product let you down" gets better essays than "Additional comments".

  4. Set the requirement thoughtfully — long answers are effortful; Soft required recovers accidental skips without forcing empty essays from unwilling respondents.

Tips

Tip: One well-placed essay question beats three. Ask it right after the relevant experience (via skip logic from a low rating), where respondents have something specific to say.

Note: Essay answers land in Results as a verbatim listing and in your exports as free text — plan to code or theme them; charts won't summarize prose for you.

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