Richard wants to find out how often people buy crisps, a) name two things that are wrong with his survey question and b) create a better one

This is Richard's question on a survey:

How often do you buy crisps?

Often [] Sometimes [] Never [_]

(a) Write down two things that are wrong with this survey question

If you are writing a survey you should design it so that you can get clear information and people reading the question will understand it. Although this question does say "how often" because the answers are vague, different people may assume that buying crisps twice a day is often, or twice a week is often. Which doesn't help your survey! This question doesn't ask a period of time, and the answers are very vague.

(b) Design a better question for Richard to use on his questionnaire to find out how often people buy crisps.

So to design a better questionnaire, let's fix those things!

How often a month do you buy crisps?

0-2 times a month []  3-4 times a month [] or more than 5 times a month [_]

There are options for people who buy no crisps and people who buy as many crisps as possible, it's clear because we've given different numbers to each box, and there's a time frame so that people can all give an accurate answer that we can compare.