do a survey

Meaning

To collect information, opinions, or behavior patterns from a specific group of people by asking them questions. While 'do a survey' is widely used in spoken academic English and casual research discussions, 'conduct a survey' or 'carry out a survey' is preferred in formal written papers.

Examples

• We plan to do a survey of local businesses to assess the economic impact of the new highway.

  We plan to do a survey of local businesses to assess the economic impact of the new highway.

• To gather enough participant responses, the research team had to do a survey online.

  To gather enough participant responses, the research team had to do a survey online.

• The sociology department decided to do a survey on student mental health during finals week.

  The sociology department decided to do a survey on student mental health during finals week.

• It is important to design the questionnaire carefully before you do a survey.

  It is important to design the questionnaire carefully before you do a survey.

• Our group needs to do a survey of at least one hundred people for our statistics project.

  Our group needs to do a survey of at least one hundred people for our statistics project.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ We made a survey to find out what customers want.

  ✓ We did a survey to find out what customers want.

  'Survey' collocates with 'do', 'conduct', or 'carry out'. 'Make a survey' is an incorrect literal translation from other languages.

• ✗ I will make a survey of fifty people next week.

  ✓ I will do a survey of fifty people next week.

  Avoid using 'make' when you mean to administer or run a questionnaire. Use 'do' or 'conduct' instead.

Related Expressions

Practice

• For our marketing class, we need to ___ to see how classmates feel about the new policy.

  💡 Use the standard verb for administering a questionnaire.

  Show answer

  do a survey

• If you want accurate results, you must ___ with a representative sample of the population.

  💡 This phrase describes the action of gathering questionnaire data.

  Show answer

  do a survey