.

Not an answer that was supplied for choice

Exapmle:
An open-ended question is...
(and you have to give your own answer of what it is)



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Note added at 25 mins (2003-12-25 15:32:59 GMT)
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Also a \'special\' question - i.e. a question that begins with a \'Wh\' or \'How\' question word

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Note added at 32 mins (2003-12-25 15:40:41 GMT)
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Sorry for having misspelled the word \'constructed\' in the answer provided above :)))!

Another way of putting it, although the previous answers are also correct.

It is often used to distinguish an "essay" question (though the essay may be short) from a multiple-choice question.

I used to do Customer Service training programs and "Questioning Techniques" is a part of it. But honestly, till now, no one (not me either!!) can give a 100% concrete definition for "OE question" and "CE question".

Some says "OE questions" start with 5W1H (What, Who.... How) and some says "CE questions" get one-word or fixed answer(e.g. Yes/No). So, let's look at these:

Question: What is the name of your wife?
Answer: Jillian

Question: Who do you like best in class?
Answer: Tom Faulken

So, are these CE questions or OE questions??? Take a minute to ponder over this.....

For me, OE question = the answerer can say anything he or she wants, without any manipulation of his or her answer.

Sorry.... I am not trying to cause confusion here. Hmm.. maybe I should post this as another Kudoz question.

This excludes questions whose answer is yes or no and multiple choice question as my colleagues indicated, but it also excludes questions whose answers are very direct and specific. For example "how old are you", "what is your name", or "what company do you work for" are not open ended questions.

On the other hand, examples of open ended questions are "how do you feel about the commercialization of the holidays?", "what do you plan do achieve after high school?", etc. The possibilities are, well, open. The answer usually includes an opinion, description, analysis, or it frequently entails talking about oneself.

Open ended questions are frequently not used to get information, but to make the other party comfortable, or to get them to start talking without inhibition. Certain professions are trained to use open ended questions to get information by hoping that an interviewee would digress into subjects they normally would not talk about. Detectives exploit this technique shamelessly!

A very good example is "what is an open ended questions?" as you must have realized by now:)