Questionnaire construction, including use of open and closed questions;…

The idea

Closed questions fix the response options, such as yes or no, a rating or a Likert scale, and produce numbers that are quick to analyse and easy to compare, but they force people into a box and say nothing about why. Open questions invite a free answer, which is richer and less researcher-led, though the replies then need qualitative analysis or coding through content analysis. Well-built items are short, unambiguous and free of jargon, leading wording, double-barrelled questions and emotive language, and fillers can disguise the aim. Interviews sit on the same axis: a structured interview follows a fixed schedule in a fixed order, so it is replicable but cannot follow anything up; an unstructured interview is flexible and detailed but vulnerable to interviewer bias; a semi-structured one does both.

What earns the marks

• Distinguishes closed questions, with fixed options producing quantitative data, from open questions producing qualitative data.
• Gives the trade-off: ease of analysis and comparison versus depth and detail.
• Names design principles: clarity, avoiding leading, double-barrelled, jargon-heavy and emotive items, and using filler questions.
• Describes structured, unstructured and semi-structured interviews by how far the schedule is fixed.
• Covers practical design points for interviews, such as a schedule, recording, a quiet setting and reminding the interviewee of confidentiality.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Writing sample questions that are leading or double-barrelled while claiming to demonstrate good design.

• Treating a Likert scale as an open question because the respondent 'chooses their own level of agreement'.

• Evaluating with 'people might lie' and stopping there, instead of naming social desirability bias and a control such as anonymity.

• Describing an unstructured interview as having no preparation at all, rather than no fixed set of questions.

Exam tips

• If asked to write questions, write them out in full and label them open or closed; a description of the type earns no credit.
• Justify each question against the stem's aim, because application marks depend on the question actually measuring that variable.
• For interviews, state the type first, then one procedural detail, then one strength tied to the data it yields.