Open-ended questions
Open-ended questions provide no indication of possible answers and rarely define any parameters to restrict the respondent. These are essentially descriptive questions that require a more detailed and personal response. Very often I see them being described as the qualitative element in a questionnaire. This is something of an over- statement; they are descriptive but rarely are they truly qualitative. The depth of narrative needed to label something as qualitative data is almost impossible to harvest from a questionnaire. The descriptive data that open-ended questions may produce can add Open- ended questions (see Example 16.6 overleaf) provide your research subjects with an opportunity to make their own comments about an issue, to tell you precisely what is important to them about this topic. These questions follow the same aware that, unlike an interview schedule, although you must remain aware that, unlike an interview, you will not be there to clarify the meaning of any question. It is important to resist making the question too complex. It is all too easy for a respondent to skip a question on a questionnaire or to answer in the easiest way possible. The last thing you want from an open-ended question is a response like ‘Yes’. However, if your question is phrased in a way that the respondent can answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to, then you can make a comfortable assumption that that is exactly what they will do.