Types of Questions and Common Mistakes in Question Writing PDF

**Questionnaire: Definition, Examples, Design and Types** A **questionnaire** is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Questionnaires can be thought of as a kind of written interview. They can be carried out face to face...

**Questionnaire: Definition, Examples, Design and Types** A **questionnaire** is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Questionnaires can be thought of as a kind of written interview. They can be carried out face to face, by telephone, computer or post. Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way of obtaining large amounts of information from a large sample of people. Data can be collected relatively quickly because the researcher would not need to be present when the questionnaires were completed. This is useful for large populations when interviews would be impractical. However, a problem with questionnaires is that respondents may lie due to social desirability. Most people want to present a positive image of themselves and so may lie or bend the truth to look good, e.g., learners would exaggerate revision duration. Questionnaires can be an effective means of measuring the behavior, attitudes, preferences, opinions and intentions of relatively large numbers of subjects more cheaply and quickly than other methods. An important distinction is between open- ended and closed questions. Often a questionnaire uses both open and closed questions to collect data. This is beneficial as it means both quantitative and qualitative data can be obtained. **Closed Questions** Closed questions structure the answer by only allowing responses which fit into pre-decided categories. Data that can be placed into a category is called nominal data. The category can be restricted to as few as two options, i.e., dichotomous (e.g. "yes" or "no" "male" or "female") or include quite complex lists of alternatives from which the respondent can choose (e.g., polytomous). Closed questions can also provide ordinal data (which can be ranked). This often involves using a continuous rating scale to measure the strength of attitudes or emotions. For example, strongly agree / agree / neutral / disagree / strongly disagree / unable to answer. Closed questions have been used to research type A personality (e.g., Friedman & Rosenman, 1974), and also to assess life events which may cause stress (Holmes & Rahe, 1967), and attachment (Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000). **Strengths** They can be economical. This means they can provide large amounts of research data for relatively low costs. Therefore, a large sample size can be obtained which should be representative of the population, which a researcher can then generalize from. The respondent provides information which can be easily converted into quantitative data (e.g., count the number of \'yes\' or \'no\' answers), allowing statistical analysis of the responses. The questions are standardized. All respondents are asked exactly the same questions in the same order. This means a questionnaire can be replicated easily to check for reliability. Therefore, a second researcher can use the questionnaire to check that the results are consistent. **Limitations** They lack detail. Because the responses are fixed, there is less scope for respondents to supply answers which reflect their true feelings on a topic. **Open Questions** Open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words. Open- ended questions enable the respondent to answer in as much detail as they like in their own words. For example: "Can you tell me how happy you feel right now?" If you want to gather more in-depth answers from your respondents, then open questions will work better. These give no pre-set answer options and allow the respondents to put down exactly what they like in their own words. Open questions are often used for complex questions that cannot be answered in a few simple categories but require more detail and discussion. Lawrence Kohlberg presented his participants with moral dilemmas. One of the most famous concerns a character called Heinz who is faced with the choice between watching his wife die of cancer or stealing the only drug that could help her. Participants were asked whether Heinz should steal the drug or not and, more importantly, for their reasons why upholding or breaking the law is right. **Strengths** Rich qualitative data is obtained as open questions allow the respondent to elaborate on their answer. This means the research can find out why a person holds a certain attitude. **Limitations** Time-consuming to collect the data. It takes longer for the respondent to complete open questions. This is a problem as a smaller sample size may be obtained. Time-consuming to analyze the data. It takes longer for the researcher to analyze qualitative data as they have to read the answers and try to put them into categories by coding, which is often subjective and difficult. However, Smith (1992) has devoted an entire book to the issues of thematic content analysis the includes 14 different scoring systems for open-ended questions. Not suitable for less educated respondents as open questions require superior writing skills and a better ability to express one\'s feelings verbally. **5 COMMON SURVEY QUESTION MISTAKES THAT WILL RUIN YOUR DATA** **1. Don't write leading questions** Top survey mistake \#1: Questions should never be worded in a way that'll sway the reader to one side of the argument. Usually you can tell a question is leading if it includes non-neutral wording. *Bad Question:* How short was Napoleon? The word "short" immediately brings images to the mind of the respondent. If the question is rewritten to be neutral-sounding, it can eliminate the leading bias. *Good Question:* How would you describe Napoleon's height? Leading questions can also be the cause of unnecessary additions to the question. *Bad Question:* Should concerned parents use infant car seats? The term "concerned parents" leads the respondent away from the topic at hand. Instead, stay focused by only including what is needed in the question. *Good Question:* Do you think special car seats should be required for infant passengers? **2. Avoid loaded questions** Loaded questions are questions written in a way that forces the respondent into an answer that doesn't accurately reflect his or her opinion or situation. This key survey mistake will throw off your survey respondents and is one of the leading contributors to respondents abandoning surveys. *Bad Question:* Where do you enjoy drinking beer? By answering this question, the respondent is announcing that they drink beer. However, many people dislike beer or will not drink alcohol and therefore can't answer the question truthfully. Usually, loaded questions are best avoided by pretesting your survey to make sure every respondent has a way to answer honestly. In the case of the example above, you may choose to ask a preliminary question on whether the respondent drinks beer and use skip logic to let people who don't drink beer pass over the questions that don't apply to them. **3. Stay away from double-barreled questions** What is a double-barreled question? It's one of the most common survey mistakes. And it's when you force respondents to answer two questions at once. It's also a great way to ruin your survey results. Survey questions should always be written in a way that only one thing is being measured. If a single question has two subjects, it's impossible to tell how the respondent is weighing the different elements involved. *Bad Question:* How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the pay and work benefits of your current job? In the case of the example above, it makes sense to break the question into two; satisfaction with pay and satisfaction with work benefits. Otherwise, some of your respondents will be answering the question while giving more weight to pay, and others will answer giving more weight to work benefits. *Good Questions:* How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the pay of your current job? How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the work benefits of your current job? It's also easy to double-barrel a question by giving more than one group for the respondent to consider. *Bad Question:* How useful will this textbook be for students and young professionals in the field? Now the respondent is forced to give a single answer for both parties. Instead break the question into two; one measuring usefulness for students and one measuring usefulness for professionals. *Good Questions:* How useful will this textbook be for students? How useful will this textbook be for young professionals in the field? **4. Absolutely do not use absolutes in questions** Absolutes in questions force respondents into a corner where they can't give useful feedback. These questions usually have the options Yes/No and include wording such as "always," "all," "every," "ever," etc. *Bad Question:* Do you always eat breakfast? (Yes/No) Read literally, the example above would force almost any respondent to answer "No." Even then, there would be some respondents who would interpret the question as asking whether they always eat a full breakfast when they have a chance. The inflexibility of absolutes makes questions too rigid to be used in a survey. Instead, the question should have a variety of options that people will feel more comfortable choosing from. *Good Question:* How many days a week do you usually eat breakfast? (Every day/ 5-6 days/ 3-4 days/ 1-2 days/ I usually don't eat breakfast) **5. Be clear by speaking your respondent's language** Regardless of who's taking your survey, use clear, concise, and uncomplicated language while trying to avoid acronyms, technical terms or jargon that may confuse your respondents. And make sure to provide definitions or examples if you need to include tricky terms or concepts. That way, you can be certain that almost anybody can answer your questions easily, and that they'll be more inclined to complete your survey. *Bad Question:* Do you own a tablet PC? *Good Question:* Do you own a tablet PC? (e.g. iPad, Android tablet) *Bad Question:* What was the state of the cleanliness of the room? *Good Question:* How clean was the room? Generally, you should strive to write questions using language that is easily understood. Certain sample groups, however, may have a knowledge base that can make the use of more difficult terms and ideas a viable option. Ask yourself if your respondents have a deep understanding of certain events, terms, and issues dealt with in the survey. The more you can focus on writing good questions, as opposed to explaining things in common terms, the better. For example, if you are surveying patients in a hospital, you'll want to avoid using medical jargon. However, if your survey sample is made up of doctors, it makes sense to ask more specialized questions and use higher level medical vocabulary. By avoiding these five-common survey-writing mistakes, your survey should run like a well-oiled machine, your data will be more accurate, and your respondents will exit your survey feeling great because they've shared honest and accurate feedback. Triple win! So put your writing cap on and get to creating those questions.