: simplest forms of survey question - Essay Example

Response to “Simplest forms of survey question” Affiliation: Simple closed-ended questions in any survey are common than the open-ended ones as they are quick to collect information as it is simply a matter of short pre-determined answers on the survey questionnaire. This however does not mean that they are always as simple as they look or appear to be. Their coding and analysis may be affected by the framing of the pre-determined answers as explained by Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias (2008).

The researcher has to be mindful of the answers provided whether most of them are positive, negative or neutral as they may affect the overall comparison and analysis of the responses. I agree with the fact that the simple open-ended questions that are in dichotomous scales gather only the information that is related directly with the question and provides no further probe of the information as a way of making further explanations. This is good for simple researches whose explanations are straight forward and do not need in depth explanations or analysis.

However, for the researches that target highly learned individuals or of those areas that have minimal research materials, simple closed-ended survey questions with no room for further probing may not be the best idea for a researcher to use. Rather, there is need for open-ended questions which have the researcher probing further for clarifications and in depth explanations to an answer in order to have a comprehensive analysis with a lot of supporting or refuting information for further research in future as has been explained in detail by Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias (2008).

ReferencesFrankfort-Nachmias, C. and Nachmias, D. (2008). Research methods in the social sciences (7th Ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.