Open-ended questions are free-form survey questions that allow respondents to answer in open text format so that they can answer based on their complete knowledge, feeling, and understanding. It means that the response to this question is not limited to a set of options.

Open-ended questions give your respondents the freedom and space to answer in as much detail as they like, too. Extra detail really helps to qualify and clarify their responses, yielding more accurate information and actionable insight for you.

Open-ended questions are an effective way to challenge your students and learn more about how they think. They encourage extended responses and allow your students to reason, think, and reflect.

Open-ended questions allow to collect qualitative answers from customers that are, for the most part, full of information. By asking an open-ended question, you are giving your customers the opportunity to answer whatever they like, without limiting or influencing them with predefined answers.

In English, there are four types of questions: general or yes/no questions, special questions using wh-words, choice questions, and disjunctive or tag/tail questions. Each of these different types of questions is used commonly in English, and to give the correct answer to each you’ll need to be able to be prepared.

The ability to ask good open-ended questions isn’t just important for building small talk with new people, but also forging stronger connections with those you’re already close with….

• How was your weekend? What did you do?
• How was your day? What was the best part?
• How have you been? What’s been going well for you?

“Powerful questions are a reflection of committed listening and understanding the other person’s perspective that is confirmed through paraphrasing. Powerful questions are: • Open-ended questions with no hidden agenda.

Conversation Starters For Any Situation

• Tell me about yourself.
• Have you done anything exciting lately?
• What made you smile today?
• How did you meet the host?
• What’s your favorite form of social media?
• What was the last good book you read?
• Do you listen to any podcasts?

Open-ended questions begin in very specific ways. Open-ended questions begin with the following words: why, how, what, describe, tell me about…, or what do you think about… 3.

A leading question is a type of question that prompts a respondent towards providing an already-determined answer. For example, if you wanted clients to sign up for an insurance plan, you could craft a leading question like: “When would you like to sign up for our insurance plan?”

If you can answer a question with only a “yes” or “no” response, then you are answering a closed-ended type of question. Examples of closed-ended questions are: Are you feeling better today? May I use the bathroom?

Closed questions are usually much shorter and more focused and are therefore easier to answer as the choice of responses are limited, usually ‘yes’ or ‘no’ – these risk masking the true picture by forcing a binary choice.

Disadvantages of Closed Questions They can force the respondent into an answer they don’t necessarily want to give. This can make the respondent frustrated as they are unable to adequately express their opinion. It can be difficult to determine if someone has misunderstood the question.

 CLOSED ENDED WORDS: ◦ All, always, cannot, every, must, never, none, not, only, will not.  OPEN ENDED WORDS: ◦ Generally, may, possibly, usually.

Closed-ended questions are questions that can only be answered by selecting from a limited number of options, usually multiple-choice, ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or a rating scale (e.g. from strongly agree to strongly disagree). Closed-ended questions give limited insight, but can easily be analyzed for quantitative data.

Close ended questions are those that start with ‘Can’, ‘Did’, ‘Will’ or ‘Have’. Most commonly, they take the form of multiple choice questions, where respondents choose from a set list of answers. You would use closed ended questions to collect quantitative data.

Instead, open-ended questions are used in qualitative research (see the video above for more information) and closed-ended questions are used in quantitative research.

Benefits of Effective Questioning

• Encourages students to engage with their work and each other.
• Helps students to think out loud.
• Facilitates learning through active discussion.
• Empowers students to feel confident about their ideas.
• Improves speaking and listening skills.
• Builds critical thinking skills.

Close ended questions are defined as question types that ask respondents to choose from a distinct set of pre-defined responses, such as “yes/no” or among set multiple choice questions. In a typical scenario, closed-ended questions are used to gather quantitative data from respondents.

Open ended questions allow you to better understand the respondent’s true feelings and attitudes about the survey subject. Close ended questions, due to their limitations, do not give respondents the choice to truly give their opinions.

Since closed-ended questions have discrete responses, you can analyze these responses by assigning a number or a value to every answer. This makes it easy to compare responses of different individuals which, in turn, enables statistical analysis of survey findings.

The major advantage of close-ended questions comes down to one simple detail – closed questions collect quantitative data.

Let us begin by pointing out that open and closed-ended questions do not at first glance serve the same purpose in market research. Instead, open-ended questions are used in qualitative research (see the video above for more information) and closed-ended questions are used in quantitative research.

Tips for using close ended questions

1. Become an expert but write questions for those who aren’t.
2. Keep questions simple and clear.
3. Ensure answer choices are exclusive and exhaustive.
4. Only provide answers that are relevant.

Look at these examples to see how question tags are used.

• You haven’t seen this film, have you?
• She’s a doctor, isn’t she?
• He isn’t here, is he?
• I don’t need to finish this today, do I?
• Jenni eats cheese, doesn’t she?
• The bus stop’s over there, isn’t it?
• They could hear me, couldn’t they?
• I’m never on time, am I?

Open and Closed Questions For example, “Are you thirsty?” The answer is “Yes” or “No”; “Where do you live?” The answer is generally the name of your town or your address. Open questions elicit longer answers. They usually begin with what, why, how.

What are the 7 WH question words? (+ how)

They include Who, What, When Where, and Why. The 5 Ws are often mentioned in journalism (cf….What are the 5 Ws?

• Who is it about?
• What happened?
• When did it take place?
• Where did it take place?
• Why did it happen?

If you want more information than a simple yes/no answer, you must ask a question starting with one of the following question words: what, where, when, why, which, who(m), whose, how. In this kind of question you also normally use an auxiliary or modal: What did you say?

THREE TYPES OF QUESTIONS: 1. Factual 2. Interpretive 3. Evaluative Page 5 FACTUAL QUESTIONS Page 6 FACTUAL QUESTIONS Everyone will eventually agree on the answer.