Here are some of the best questions for a student survey about writing center services, and tips on how to create them. If you want to quickly build a high-quality survey, you can generate one with Specific in seconds—no manual effort required.
Best open-ended questions for student survey about writing center services
Open-ended questions let students express their experiences and insights in their own words—which reveals deeper “whys” and helps us improve the writing center in ways we might not expect. These questions are especially good when we want richer data, context behind student choices, or to uncover issues we hadn’t thought about. In fact, open-ended questions help researchers avoid bias and foster honest engagement—making students feel truly heard [1].
What motivated you to visit the writing center for the first time?
Can you describe a recent experience that stood out during your writing center visit?
What aspects of the writing center services have you found most helpful, and why?
Were there any challenges or frustrations you faced when using the writing center? Please explain.
How has your writing process or confidence changed since accessing the center?
If you could improve one thing about our writing center, what would it be?
Can you share how the staff or tutors supported your specific goals or writing projects?
What resources or services do you wish the writing center offered?
How do you prefer to receive feedback on your work from the writing center team?
Is there anything else you want us to know about your experience with the writing center?
Open-ended survey questions like these drive more comprehensive understanding, reveal unanticipated insights, and let us build empathy with students’ real learning journeys [1][2].
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for student survey about writing center services
Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal when we need to quantify feedback or start conversations easily. They lower the barrier for students; sometimes it’s simpler to tap a quick answer before we dig deeper for more context. That’s why they’re common in AI survey builders and conversational survey tools.
Here are three examples tailored for writing center service feedback:
Question: How often do you visit the writing center?
Weekly
Monthly
Once per semester
It was my first visit
Question: Which writing center service did you use most recently?
One-on-one tutoring
Writing workshops
Online resources
Other
Question: How satisfied are you with the support you received?
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
When to follow up with "why?" We always recommend following a multiple-choice answer with “why?” if the answer could mean several different things or leaves us guessing the motivation. For example: If a student selects “Dissatisfied” for support received, a natural follow-up is “Can you explain what didn’t meet your expectations?” This helps us reach the real issues—and research shows these follow-ups can validate or provide context to quantitative data [2].
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always offer an "Other" option when it’s possible students might use a service that’s not already listed. Following up with an open-ended “Please specify” can uncover unexpected needs or new initiatives to support.
NPS survey question for writing center services
NPS (Net Promoter Score) asks: “How likely are you to recommend our writing center services to your peers?” on a scale from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely). It’s a simple yet powerful way to gauge overall satisfaction and loyalty—great for benchmarking and tracking progress over time. For students, it reveals if we’re making enough impact that they'd advocate for our services. To try one tailored for this context, check the pre-built NPS survey for writing center services.
The power of follow-up questions
Quality feedback often comes in layers. That’s why automated follow-up questions are a game changer—unlocking true conversational surveys. We covered this in detail in our article about automated follow-up questions, but here’s what matters most: Specific uses AI to ask smart follow-ups in real time, reacting to what a student actually says. If someone gives a vague answer, the AI can gently prompt them to be more specific or to share an example, saving us countless hours chasing feedback via email. This means richer, more useful insights for any writing center survey.
Student: “I liked the tutor.”
AI follow-up: “What specifically did you find helpful about the tutor’s approach?”
How many followups to ask? Usually, 2-3 thoughtful follow-ups are enough to gather meaningful detail—without overwhelming respondents. Specific lets you customize this and even auto-advance once you’ve got enough info.
This makes it a conversational survey. With carefully-timed, relevant follow-ups, every student’s feedback feels like a genuine chat—not a quiz.
AI response analysis, unstructured feedback, qualitative data. Even though you’ll get a lot of detailed text, tools like AI response analysis and chat-based AI survey response analysis make it fast and pain-free to pick out patterns, pain points, and key ideas.
Automated followups are a fresh approach—give the survey generator a try and see the difference yourself.
How to prompt ChatGPT or GPTs to generate questions for your student survey
Using AI survey creation tools or chatbots, you can draft great survey questions with just a prompt. To get started, try:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for student survey about writing center services.
AI works best with more context—describe your situation, goals, or target group:
We are evaluating student satisfaction with the university’s writing center, including tutoring, workshops, and online resources. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to uncover what’s working, what’s missing, and how we might improve.
Once you have a list, ask the AI to organize them:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, drill down into what matters for you. For example:
Generate 10 questions for categories: 'Feedback on Tutoring Sessions' and 'Suggestions for New Services'.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is a new kind of survey—think of it as a smart, responsive chat instead of a static form. AI survey builders like Specific create these surveys quickly, adapting in real time based on responses, and asking contextual follow-up questions or clarifications. The experience is friendlier for students, and the insights are deeper for us.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Survey (Conversational) |
|---|---|
Endless forms, repetitive setup | Prompt-based—it’s like chatting with an expert researcher |
Little room for live follow-up | Follow-ups happen instantly, in context |
Requires manual analysis of open text | AI summarizes, categorizes, and makes sense of feedback automatically |
Survey feels impersonal | Feels like a real conversation—students engage more |
Why use AI for student surveys? Students respond more openly and in detail when it feels like a two-way chat, not a cold questionnaire. The AI survey example format helps us uncover unknowns, reduce survey bias, and generate best-in-class feedback. You can explore how to create a survey like this quickly—even editing questions simply by chatting, thanks to the AI survey editor.
Specific leads the way in conversational, AI-powered surveys—making both survey creation and analysis smooth, fast, and engaging for students and staff.
See this writing center services survey example now
Discover how engaging and actionable your feedback can be—see a conversational writing center survey in action and craft your own in minutes with AI-driven precision and real-time insights.