Two General Types of Questions
There 2 general types of a question. These
are structured or fixed response question
also known as closed-ended question. The second
is called non-structured or open
ended questions. It is important to understand
when and how to use these questions when
designing your survey
1. Structured/ Fixed Response Question/
Exploratory Questionnaire Structured
questions are questions that offer the
respondent a closed set of responses from
which to choose. It makes data collection
and analysis much simpler and they take
less time to answer. It is best suited in the
following situation (1) when you have a
thorough understanding of the responses
so that you can appropriately develop the
answer choices (2) when you are not
trying to capture new ideas or thought
from the respondent.
Types of Closed – Ended Questions
a) Yes/No questions -
The respondent answers
the questions with a ‘yes’
or a ‘no’. Example: Have
you cut your classes?
b) Multiple choice- The respondent
has several options from which
to choose.
Example: How would you rate this product
(i) ___Excellent (ii) ___Good
(iii) ___Fair (iv) ___Poor
c) Scaled questions- Responses are
graded on a continuum
Example: Rate the appearance of the
product on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10
being the most preferred appearance.
Types of scales include the Likert Scale
and Semantic Differential Scale
 Likert scale is a psychometric scale
commonly involved in research that
employs questionnaires to measure social
attitudes.
Example: Are you happy with your child’s teeth
arrangement?
(1) Strongly disagree (2) Disagree
(3) Don’t know (4) Agree
(5) Strongly agree
 A semantic differential scale is a list of
opposite adjectives to measure
psychological meaning of an object to an
individual.
Example: Rate the park on the following
dimensions:
Safe ____ : ____ : ____ Dangerous
Dirty ____ : ____ : ____ Clean
Quiet____ : ____ : ____ Noisy
2. Non-structured/ Open- Ended question
Non-structure questions are questions
where there is no list of answer choices
from which to choose. Respondents are
simply asked to write their response to a
question. The respondent replies in their
own words without being constrained by
a fixed set of possible responses.
Types of Open-Ended Questions
a) Completely unstructured- For example,
‘What is your opinion
on questionnaires?’
b) Word association - Words are presented,
and the respondent mentions the first
word that
comes to mind.
Example: If interviewer says cold, the respondent
may say hot and the like ones.
 c) Sentence completion- Respondents
complete an incomplete sentence.
Example: ‘ The most important consideration in
my decision to buy a new house is . . . ’
d) Story completion- Respondents complete
an incomplete story.
e) Picture completion- Respondents fill in
an empty conversation balloon.
f) Thematic apperception test - Respondents
explain a picture
or make up a story about what
they think is happening in the
picture.
1. Avoid technical terms and jargons.
2. Avoid vague and imprecise terms.
3. Define terms very specifically.
4. Avoid complex sentence.
5. Provide reference frames.
6. Make sure scales are ordinal.
7. Avoid double- barreled questions.
8. Answer choices should anticipate all
possibilities.
9. If you want a single answer, make sure
your answer choices are unique and
include all possible responses.
10. Avoid questions using leading, emotional
or evocative language.

Ideal Requisites of a Questionnaire

1. Questionnaire composed of a simple and
a specific language.
2. Demand one answer on one dimension
3. Yield a truthful and accurate answer.
4. Accommodate all possible contingencies
of a response.
5. Have mutually exclusive response
options.
6. Produce variability in response
7. Minimize social desirability

Preliminary Decision in Questionnaire

Design
1. Decide the information required.
2. Define the target respondents.
3. Choose the method(s) of reaching your
target respondents.
4. Decide on question content.
5. Develop the question wording.
6. Put questions into a meaningful order and
format.
7. Check the length of the questionnaire.
8. Pre-test the questionnaire.
9. Develop the final survey form.

General Rules for Writing Survey

Questions
Ideal question accomplishes three goals,
(1) it measures the underlying concept it is
intended to tap, (2) it doesn’t measure other
concept, (3) it means the same

thing to all respondents. The following rules help

accomplish these goals;