Minimize the amount of reading required for each item
Include most information in the stem so that the options can be short
When making the stem an incomplete statement, make sure the options follow the stem in a grammatically correct manner
Keep options parallel in format (if all options cannot be constructed in a parallel way, make 2 options parallel to each other and the rest of the options parallel to each other)
Make options mutually exclusive (ex. Avoid 1-4, 2-5, 3-6 etc. as options because they overlap)