Creating Questions

Every questionnaire must be handcrafted. It is

not only the questionnaire writing that must
be artful; each questionnaire is also unique,
an original. A designer must cut and try, see
how it looks and sounds, see how people
react to it, and then cut again, and try again.
J. Converse and S. Presser, Survey Questions: Handcrafting the Standardized
Questionnaire (Beverley Hills: Sage Publications, 1986)

Creating Questions
QUESTION STYLES
1. Open Questions

Example
How do you like the content and pace of the
material in this course?
Answered in respondents own words
Wide variety of response
Difficult to interpret and quantify

Creating Questions
2. Closed Questions

Example
How do you like the content and pace of the
material in this course?
Love it! Awesome! Great! Good! OK
Response is selected from a given list
Easy to analyze
Potential for bias due to range of answers
provided

Creating Questions
3.

Question Types
Information Questions
Check the appropriate response
a) Gender: Male
Female
b) Status:
Single
Married
Typically in the header or information section of
questionnaire
Watch for it when completing your income taxes
Similar potential for bias as Closed Question type

Creating Questions
4.

Checklist Questions
What type of movie would you pay money to
watch? (check all that apply)
action
foreign
romance
documentary
horror
cartoon
family

Creating Questions
5. Ranking Questions

Rank the following in order of importance from

1 (most important) to 5 (least important)
- getting a good grade
- understanding the material
- knowing the material for the test
- retaining the concepts for life
- social opportunities

Creating Questions
6. Rating Questions

How satisfied were you with your last test

score?
- very satisfied
- satisfied
- dissatisfied
- very dissatisfied

Creating Questions
Good Questions:
1. Are simple
2. Are relevant
3. Are specific
4. Are readable

Creating Questions
Good Questions avoid:
1.
Jargon
Are ribbies the most important statistic for determining batting
success in the MLB
2.
Abbreviations
On a scale of 1 to 5, how effective is the CSA in promoting
space exploration to school children?
3.
Negatives
From the list below, indicate which books you wouldnt
recommend parents read to their toddlers.
4.
Leading respondents
Using the three-point scale, indicate your satisfaction with
Bright-O, the most popular toothpaste in Canada.)
5.
Insensitivity
These questions belittle or insult respondents.