Questions in research methodology

1. Categories of questions

The questions included in the questionnaire should individually and collectively provide the data required for successful achievement of the research objectives. A well-constructed questionnaire also has a range of question categories, each consisting of a small number of related questions, intended to elicit information of a particular type relating to the research topic.

• Socio-demographic items: to develop a “summary” of the respondent by asking questions about their gender, marital status, age group, occupation, and related nonsensitive personal information.
• Orientation items: to familiarise the respondent with the core issues relating to the research and sometimes to test their level of knowledge of the topic.
• Behavioural questions: to measure attitudes, beliefs, opinions, motives, and behaviours. Attitude questions record how respondents feel about something (their belief in something), and opinion questions record what respondents believe is true or false.
• Content-related questions: to elicit data on the major purpose and content of the research topic.

2. Number and content of questions

Most researchers tend to include too many questions in their questionnaires. This often arises from an incomplete analysis of the research objectives. Researchers should therefore have absolute clarity about their research objectives, and keep these in mind during the planning and design stage so that all the items on the questionnaire are relevant and have a clear purpose. Clear, concise, and well-constructed questionnaires generally result in a better participant response rate.

3. Structure and layout of the questionnaire

This includes the researcher determining the numbers, question classifications, and the kinds of inquiries. It is necessary to consider the genuine structure and format of the questionnaire and the succession of the questions. A few recommendations here are that the researcher should begin with comparable and recognisable ‘introduction’ questions, continue to ‘content’ and conduct questions and keep the individual, socio-demographic items for last, and to word these cautiously to abstain from giving offense.

4. Type of questions

The following broad points are noteworthy:

• Closed questions that define the participant’s range of responses to questions are better suited to questionnaires as they readily lend themselves to coding and to analysis.
• Questions should be designed to facilitate computer analysis as this allows for rapid computation, statistical analysis and graphical presentation of data.

Depending on the needs of the research topic and the range of data required for comprehensive coverage of the research objectives, the typical question formats include the following:

• Single-option responses (‘yes’, ‘no’ or short answers)
• Multiple choice responses (sets of options)
• Rating questions (using Likert scales, for example)
• Ranking questions (ranking set of options).

5. The wording questions

Clear correspondence should be an essential objective of all questionnaires. The researcher should avoid wording that gives rise to a misconception, proposes analyst predisposition, or is offensive. The following are a few suggestions for the wording of questions.

D. Annan "A simple guide to research writing"