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What it’s for

A Long text question asks an open question and records the answer in the respondent’s own words — “What’s the most important issue facing your local area at the moment?” or “Is there anything we could have done better?” The answer is captured verbatim. Nothing is matched against a list, and there’s no format check or screen-out.

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Settings

Alongside the settings every question shares (Question settings): A Long text question has no answer options, Format or screen-out settings.
Probe lines are only spoken when Probe once for more after the first answer is on. Lines left in place while the probe is off are kept but never used.

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What the respondent hears

The ask. The voice prompt. The respondent answers in their own words. The probe (when on). Exactly once, after the first answer, the interviewer asks a neutral follow-up — “Is there anything else you’d like to add about that?” or one of your Probe lines. Whatever they add is joined to the first answer into one verbatim record. “No, that’s it” leaves the first answer as it was. Write probe lines that are neutral and open — “Is there anything else about that you’d like to mention?”, “Anything else at all?” — not ones that steer the answer. Confirmation (on by default). The interviewer reads back a short summary covering every point made — “So water infrastructure, and climate change — have I got that right?”
  • A “yes” records the answer.
  • Any kind of “no” asks the respondent to give their answer again; they don’t correct the summary piece by piece.
  • What’s recorded is always the respondent’s own words, never the summary.
Turn Read every answer back off for a quicker interview when a summary adds little — for example, a short “any other comments?” at the end. See Answer confirmation. “I don’t know” gets one nudge — “No worries — even a general sense of it would be useful.” — then the question is skipped. A hedged answer such as “I don’t really know, but I suppose the parking” counts as an answer. A refusal gets one reassuring nudge — “That’s completely fine — it’s only ever reported alongside everyone else’s. Would you be happy to say anything at all?” — then the question is skipped. Silence, “say that again”, FAQs, busy and stop work as on any question — see Question settings.

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Timing

People pause while they think through an open answer. Set Eagerness to low on Long text questions so a mid-thought pause isn’t taken as the end of the answer. See Attempts and step levels.

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What is recorded

In Results → Questions the most common answers (up to 12) are listed with counts; in the CSV export the text is in the answer column, ready for coding. See Responses and export.

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Next Steps