Page 245 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Unit 12: Monitoring & Control

d. Simplicity Notes
e. Neutrality. The words to be used must be neutral ones, i.e., free from the distorting
influence of fear, prestige, bias or emotion.

Certain other problem areas of question wording are:
a. Unwarranted assumptions,
b. Personalization,
c. Presumptions,

d. Hypothetical question,
e. Questions in embarrassing matters.
Some of the approaches to deal with this problem are:
a. to express the question in the third person; instead of asking the respondent for his views,
he is asked about the views of others;
b. to use a drawing of two persons in a certain setting with ‘balloons’ containing speech
coming from their mouths, as in a cartoon - leaving one person’s balloon empty and
asking the respondent to put himself in the position of that person and to fill in the
missing words; and
c. to use sentence completion tests.

Response Form or Types of Questions

The third major area in question construction is the types of questions to be included in the
instrument. They may be classified into open questions and closed questions. Closed questions
may be dichotomous, multiple choice or declarative ones.

Types of Questions to be Avoided

The question designer should avoid the following types of questions: (a) Leading questions,
(b) ‘Loaded’ questions, (c) Ambiguous questions, (d) Double-barreled, (e) Long questions, (t)
Avoid double negative.

Question Order or Sequence

The order in which questions are arranged in a schedule/questionnaire is as important as
question wording. It has two major implications. First, an appropriate sequence can ease the
respondent’s task in answering. Second, the sequence can either create or avoid biases due to
context effects, i.e., the effects of preceding questions on the response to later questions.

Mechanics of the Schedule and Questionnaire

In addition to question wording and question construction, the mechanics of the form should
also be considered in the design of a schedule/questionnaire. The mechanics of the form has
several aspects: items of the form, instruction, pre-coding, sectionalisation, spacing, paper,
printing, margins, etc.

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