Question Design

You may need to design a questionnaire for a variety of reasons and the design of the questions (e.g. how you word them) should be at the heart of what you consider before writing them.

There is such as thing as a good question and a bad question. The mark of a good question is that is does some of the following:

Evokes the truth - the question has to be phased in a way that is non-threatening to the respondent. This means that if a person feels that there is a right or a wrong answer, or that their view may be perceived in a negative light by the person asking the question, they will be less likely to give a truthful answer.

Asks for an answer in only one way - for example, if you ask the person 'do you like the colour and style of the car' and they say 'yes', you will not know if they liked the colour, the style or both.

Can accommodate a range of answers - e.g. if you ask a person, 'what flavour crisps do you like, salt and vinegar or ready salted/plain?' and they don't like either but love cheese and onion, your question will not allow for this.

Gives variance in the answers - if it is a multichoice questionnaire it should give positive and negative options as well as a middle ground for example. So the question 'how do you feel about mushrooms' should not simply have an answer of a) love them b) hate them. There should a option that is along the lines of c) they're ok but not my favourite food.

It is important to make sure you word your questionnaire well as it can mean the difference between someone completing it or not. This is especially true if it is not carried out in person, but rather through the mail for example.