Questions to avoid

Before setting to work on your questions, check the list below of things to avoid. Questions should not be too:

• Personal, eg how much money do you have in the bank?
• Embarrassing or upsetting, eg how often do you shower?
• Biased or leading [leading: guiding a question which can interfere with the response given ], eg you like ------------ don't you? Do not attempt to influence people's answers in any way.

Also, avoid questions that could be interpreted [interpreted: the way something is understood ] in several different ways. Quantifiers such as ‘few’, ‘some’, ‘many’ and ‘usually’ can be interpreted differently by different respondents. Therefore, great care must be taken when using such words or, alternatively, avoid using them.

Are you ready to start writing your questionnaire? First, have a go at the interactive activity below to see if you can identify a good, poor or biased questionnaire question.