Do you include an “other” category in the answers?

Example:

Please mark all the reasons that were important in your decision to attend Humboldt State University .

Geographic setting of the campus or surrounding community
Tuition cost
Close to family/home/job
Contact with campus employees prior to admission or enrolling
Appearance of campus
My friends were going here
Family considerations
Campus social environment
I did not have to relocate to go to school
Other _____________________

In most cases it is better to avoid the use of “other” unless people would be uncomfortable selecting one of the categorical answers.

With a few exceptions, the category "Other" should be avoided as a response option, especially when it occurs at the end of a long list of fairly lengthy choices. Careless responders will overlook the option they should have designated and conveniently mark the option "other."

Other responders will be hairsplitters and will reject an option for some trivial reason when it really applies, also marking "other." "Other (specify)" or "other (explain)" may permit recoding these erroneous responses to the extent that the responders take the trouble to write coherent explanations, but this practice is time-consuming and probably yields no better results than the simple omission of "other."

Of course, the decision not to offer the option "other" should be made only after a careful determination of the categories needed to classify nearly all of the potential responses. Then, if a few responders find that, for an item or two, there is no applicable response, little harm is done.

An exception to the foregoing advice is any case in which the categories are clear-cut, few in number, and such that some responders might feel uncomfortable in the absence of an applicable response. For example, if nearly all responders would unhesitatingly classify themselves as either black, white, or Hispanic the following item would serve well:

Race: 1) Black 2) White 3) Hispanic 3) Other

Are you using more categories or scale points than you need to serve your purpose?

A typical question is the following:

Marital status:
1) Single (never married) 2) Married 3) Widowed 4) Divorced 5) Separated

Unless the research in question were deeply concerned with conjugal relationships, it is inconceivable that the distinctions among all of these categories could be useful. Moreover, for many samples, the number of responders in the latter categories would be too small to permit generalization. Usually, such a question reflects the need to distinguish between a conventional familial setting and anything else. If so, the question could be:

Marital status: 1) Married and living with spouse 2) Other

An example of scale point proliferation:
On a scale of 1-20 how important is a college education in attaining economic security?

What is the difference between an 11 or 12, or between a 17 & 18? For most purposes a four to seven point scale is sufficient and more meaningful.

Poor example: 1) large 2) small 3) medium

Better (left to right) 1) small 2) medium 3) large

How effective was the training program?

1) somewhat effective 2) generally effective 3) very effective

Notice, there is no option for a person who felt the program was ineffective.