Interviewing: Open-Ended Responses
Open-ended questions are questions in a survey that allow a respondent to give a
verbatim response. Open-ended responses should always be recorded as close to verbatim—that
is, in the respondent’s own words—as possible. Try to get at least two or three detailed ideas for
each open-ended question. You will need to probe in order to get the best and clearest responses
to open-ended questions. Responses to open-ended questions should always contain lots of
detail, and no general or vague responses. We get detail from respondents by probing. Every
probe used by an interviewer must be general, and not bias their response. Acceptable probes do
not lead a respondent into any particular answer, only into saying more.