| Summary: |
IN THE FIRST PLACE, this little book was not written by an
expert in semantics, not even by a specialist in question
wording. The author is just a general practitioner in research.
Having made more than my share of mistakes in phrasing
issues for public consumption and feeling the need for a
book on the subject, I found that it was necessary to write it
myself. In the process, my respect for the semanticist has
increased beyond words. He is smart enough to use symbols
to represent his ideas, but I have been so foolish as to try to
use words in talking about words.
In the second place, this book is very limited in its subject
matter. It discusses the wording of single questions almost
exclusively. It hardly touches upon problems of question
sequence or the overall matter of questionnaire design. It
seemed difficult enough to deal with wording alone. Perhaps
another book and another writer will cover these other
subjects.
Third, the reader will be disappointed if he expects to
find here a set of definite rules or explicit directions. The
art of asking questions is not likely ever to be reduced to
easy formulas. As it stands, this book consists of some
observations of human behavior, a few principles of wording,
many exceptions to these principles, several unexplained oddities,
and numerous unsolved dilemmas. It is undoubtedly
richer on the how-not-to side than on the how-to side. For
want of a better description, it might be thought of as a
collection of possible considerations for question wording.
Fourth, I happen to think that even a serious subject can
be treated too seriously. Consequently, I have included some
of the amusing and perhaps irrelevant ideas which occurred
to me as I wrote. In other words, I have enjoyed writing this
book. I hope you will enjoy reading it.
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