premise may get frustrated and they will not know how to answer. The question should
rather assume a premise is true.
• Avoid asking about future intentions
Asking questions about what people may do when placed in hypothetical situations is not
reliable because it is not easy to predict behaviour.
Questions on current issues,
experiences and recent behaviour are answered more reliably than questions about future
behaviour and abstractions.
• Avoid double negatives
Double negatives are grammatically incorrect and confusing.
The double negative
generally arises when respondents are asked to agree or disagree with statements. For
example, when respondents disagree
with the statement, “Students
are not required to
attend conferences during working hours”, they can disagree with not doing something.
• Avoid overlapping
Often in numerical ranges one finds overlapping. A question
on age with the numerical
ranges (20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50+) is confusing and should be corrected to (20-29, 30-39,
40-
49, 50+). Overlapping can also arise in verbal choices, for
instance, “Are you satisfied
with the requirement for admission into the university or are there things that you feel
should be changed?”
Open and closed questions
Open questions:
Participants answer in their own words, no alternatives are given, thoughts and feelings
are revealed and the participants give reasons for their answers.
For instance, “Did exposure influence your stay in Astana? If yes, how?”.
One of the disadvantages of open questions is that they are difficult to interpret, tabulate
and summarise in research findings.
Closed questions
The most common closed question is the Yes/No option as it is easy to fill answer.
If alternatives are given, it confuses the participants.
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