Writing great questions is an art that like all arts requires a great amount of work, practice, and help from others. Below are some things you need to think about when planning and writing your questions.
Knowledge – What people know; how well they understand something.
What respondents believe is true or factual, or about their awareness.
Beliefs – What people think; Attitudes and opinions.
The perceptions people hold, their thoughts, feelings, ideas, judgements, or ways of thinking.
Behaviour – What people do.
What they have done in the past, do now, or plan to do in the future
Attributes – What people are; what people have.
Personal or demographic characteristics, age, education, occupation, or income.
Qualitative (open ended) - No restraint is put on what respondents write and they are free to express themselves how they wish – generates rich data but analysis of results is difficult. Best suited to small scale surveys.
Quantitative (forced choice questions) - A fixed range of responses is provided and the respondent must select one of them. Constrained answers provides easier analysis, but may miss important issues. Suitable for larger samples.
Questions could be:
· True/False
· Multiple Choice (One answer)
· Likert (Rating Scale)
· Ordered Choices (e.g. Ranking resources in terms of usefulness)
· Multi-Select (Choose more than one response)
Be clear about the objectives and type of information desired from the question (e.g. knowledge, belief, behaviour, attribute). If you don’t get the type of information you want, it is probably because you didn’t ask the right question!
When writing the questions for your survey you need to think about:
Who will be answering the survey questions?
The purpose of the survey
How questions will be placed in relation to each other in the survey?
How the questions will be seen through the respondents eyes
Wording
Make sure the question only asks one clear thing.
Keep questions clear, concise and to the point. Make your questions easy to understand by using simple language and avoiding jargon and acronyms.
Avoid making assumptions – this could be about the person answering the question e.g. the background knowledge the person has around the subject you are asking about.
Use clear wording – ensure that the words are not ambiguous and mean different things to different people.
Don’t ask questions that the respondent won’t accurately be able to answer.
Short items are best as they are easy to read, understand and answer quickly.
Avoid questions that are too demanding and time consuming.
Make questions as impersonal as possible.
Remember if a question is too long it may become confusing!
Bias
Avoid biased items and terms.
Do not bias later responses by the wording used in earlier questions.
Avoid asking leading questions that suggest an answer.
Response Options
Develop consistent response methods.
If it is a closed question, try to develop exhaustive and mutually exclusive response alternatives.
Make the response categories clear and logical.
Avoid responses at the scale mid-point and neutral responses. There is no assurance that a subject choosing the middle option harbours a neutral opinion. You could explain that if the student is unable to decide they should not respond, or you could include not applicable or prefer not to answer.
Offer four to five scale points maximum. Anymore can become confusing and may not be necessary.
If using a Likert scale ensure that you have included an explanation of the rating scale being used.
Ordering Questions
Place important questions at the beginning of the survey and demographic questions (such as age, gender, location, etc.) at the end.
Locate personal or confidential questions at the end of the questionnaire. The early appearance of unsettling questions may result in respondents discontinuing the questionnaire.
Arrange questions so they flow naturally. Place questions with similar content together.
Try to use the same type of question and responses throughout a series of questions on a particular topic.
The enumeration used throughout the questionnaire should be consistent.
Ensure that the information related to a question is presented on the same page as the question itself.
Use an easy to read typeface.
Questions and answers are easier to read if presented vertically.
E.g. Which one of the following topics would you like to cover in your next revision session?
a) Question design
b) Survey planning
c) Example uses
d) Evaluation methods
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~palmquis/courses/survey.html