
- Check it out in an example survey!
- Add a survey with this question to your account!
An Essay question is an open-text field used to gather longer open-text responses.
By default, the Essay question does not have a word/character limit. You can determine the response length by setting the maximum number of words or characters that the respondent can input. To learn more check out our Min/Max Word and Character Count Tutorial.
You can also set the width and the height of the Essay input box.
When To Use It
Use Essay Questions to collect a paragraph or two of text. For example, ask respondents to provide additional feedback in their own words. Still not sure which text field to select? Check out our tutorial on Textboxes vs. Essay.
Min/Max Character & Word Counts
Use the Validation tab to specify:
- Min & Max Character Count*
- Min & Max Word Count
*Spaces are counted towards the character count.
Adjust Essay Box Size
The Essay question textbox has a default size of 40 x 5 (width x height in pixels). Use the Layout tab to adjust the sizing if needed. Input different pixel values or use the up/down arrows to increment the sizing up/down by one.
Survey Taking
On a desktop and most laptops, the Essay question type looks like so.
When optimized for mobile devices the Essay question type looks very similar.
By default, survey questions show one at a time on mobile devices to prevent the need for scrolling on smaller screens. You can turn off this one-at-a-time interaction if you wish.
Reporting
In a Standard Report, Essay questions report as a Word Cloud, by default, with a list of the responses below. In the list of responses the initial display of each response is limited to 1500 characters. There will be a Read More link at the end of the 1500 characters available to display the full text.
Learn about your customization options for the Word Cloud element.
See additional compatible chart types
Within the Standard Report there are various chart types available for visualizing your data. The below grid shows which of the chart types Essay questions are compatible with.
Chart Type (Aggregate) | Compatible | |
---|---|---|
Word Cloud | ![]() | |
Collapsed Response List | | |
Contact Cards | | |
DIY Grid/Cards | |
See what other report types are compatible
The below grid shows which of the report types Essay questions are compatible with. If you plan to do some specific analysis within SurveyGizmo this report compatibility chart should help you choose the right question types.
Report Type | Compatible |
---|---|
Standard | |
Legacy Summary | |
TURF | |
Profile | |
Crosstab | |
Comparison | (Not available as source question) |
Exporting
In the CSV/Excel export, the data is displayed in a single column within the spreadsheet.
— Mike.cordeiro on 03/25/2020
@Paul: Thanks so much for your question!
While the Essay Question does not provide this functionality, we do have a File Upload Question Type allowing respondents to upload up to 10 documents into a survey response. Follow the link below for more information on this question type!
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/file-upload#feature-table
I hope this helps!
Michael
Technical Writer
SurveyGizmo Learning and Development
— Lindsey on 03/25/2020
Is it possible for respondents to upload documents (Word files, for example) either here or in some other question type?
— Mike.cordeiro on 01/19/2020
@Megan: Thank you for your question!
I'm afraid that there is not a way to format an essay textbox in the way you described using out-of-the-box features to have the respondents be able to answer in bullet point form with the Essay Question Type.
This type of formatting is possible but would require custom scripting via the survey Style tab.
If you don't have access to web development resources, our Professional Services team is available for these types of custom projects:
https://www.surveygizmo.com/professional-services/
I hope this helps Clarify!
Michael Cordeiro
SurveyGizmo Support
— Megan on 01/16/2020
Is it possible to allow respondents to use numbered or bulleted lists in their responses?
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 10/03/2019
@Jim: Thank you for your question!
I'm sorry for the trouble! To include open-text answers in a PDF or Excel download of a report, you must check the box to 'Include lists of open text answers' after selecting the download method:
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/report-downloads
My apologies if you are already doing this! If you continue to see issues with this, please don't hesitate to reach out to our Support team:
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/surveygizmo-support-hours
I hope this helps!
David
Technical Writer
SurveyGizmo Learning & Development
— Jim on 10/03/2019
how do i get the essay responses to show in the .pdf report? They show up online when i click on show responses, but i can't get them to show on the .pdf or excel downloads.
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 03/28/2019
@Product: Thank you for your question!
By default, the Essay question will report as a Word Cloud element.
This Word Cloud can be customized to include a list of responses, as noted in the introduction here:
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/standard-report-word-cloud
If you continue to see the 'no data to display' message, it might be something that our Support team needs to take a closer look at.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if this is the case:
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/surveygizmo-support-hours
I hope this helps!
David
Technical Writer
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience
— Product on 03/28/2019
How can I see all the individual essay responses as part of a report? Now, it says: "No data to display." But if I go to the "Results" tab and click on "Individual Responses," I see them all. I just can't get them to show up in a report.
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 09/05/2018
@Sean: Thank you for your question!
I'm afraid that there is not a way to format an essay textbox in the way you described using out-of-the-box features.
This type of formatting is possible but would require extensive custom CSS modification via the survey Style tab.
If you don't have access to web development resources, our Programming Services team is available for these types of custom projects:
https://www.surveygizmo.com/programming-services/
I hope this helps to clarify!
David
Documentation Specialist
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience
— Sean.mcnally on 09/04/2018
Is there a way to format the actual text box? I'd like to show the response box in a speech bubble, or as part of an image. For example, in an image that shows a person making a comment and a blank speech bubble for a person replying to the comment. The approach is used qualitative research , but I'd like to extend it to quantitative studies.
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 04/25/2018
@Joe: Thank you for your question!
I'm afraid that a setting to restrict certain characters/emojis is not currently available as part of the Essay / Long Answer question type.
This is something that would currently require a custom solution via JavaScript. If you don't have development resources available, this is something that our Programming Services team could build, for a fee:
https://www.surveygizmo.com/programming-services/
I'm sorry for the trouble!
David
Documentation Specialist
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience
— Joe on 04/25/2018
Is there a way to restrict people from submitting emoji's on there replies?
thank you
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 03/21/2018
@Yehonatan: Thank you for your note! I'm sorry for the trouble.
In my testing, Android devices were not covering up the 'Next' button on the mobile version (one-at-a-time), whereas iOS devices were covering the buttons, but did present a 'done' button to hide the keyboard.
In any case, I'm afraid that there is not a setting or built-in feature that would change this behavior.
If you could share an example of a device type that you have seen this behavior on with our Support team, we can explore our options.
Alternatively, one option is to provide instructions to the survey respondents on best practices for closing the virtual keyboard.
I hope this helps!
David
Documentation Specialist
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience
— Yehonatan on 03/21/2018
I'm having a problem with this question type in mobile survies.
when the user types his response, the virtual keyboard covers the 'next' button of the survey.
the user then has to somehow 'pull down' his keyboard (which sometimes involves pressing the back button of his phone) and if he does incorrectly it sometimes counts as having his phone retrive previous page / app. and we don't want that to happen.
is there a a good way to work around the problem?
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 11/03/2016
@Kimberley: At this time there is not a way to work around this other than the quotes that you suggested. You're not the first customer to run into this. We've been tracking the number of customers affected by this issue. I will add you to the list!
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience Team
— Kimberley on 11/03/2016
Hello, I have a response to an essay question that is 1757 characters long with spaces. In the standard report this response is cut off at 997 characters. (Word Cloud is turned off in the report's global options and the responses are shown in a summary table). Is there a way to stop this response from being cut off?
I could add this response as a quote but then I have some of the text twice.
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 10/13/2016
@Brad: Thank you for your feedback!
The following article should help provide specifics regarding the Word Cloud element:
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/word-cloud
I have now linked to the Word Cloud content from this article under the Reporting section. Thank you again for your feedback and helping us improve SurveyGizmo Documentation.
Best regards,
David
Documentation Specialist/Survey Explorer
SurveyGizmo Customer Experience
— Brad on 10/13/2016
Although you referenced that Essay question responses are generated as a "Word Cloud" but you do not provide any guidance on how to stop having a Word Cloud displayed - Frankly, altho it might be "flashy"; it is worthless when all you want is to show what the individual answers were per the essay type question.