Closed questions invite a short-focused answer- answers to closed questions can often (but not always) be either right or wrong.   Closed questions are usually easy to answer – as the choice of answer is limited – they can be effectively used early in conversations to encourage participation and can be very useful in fact-finding scenarios such as research.

Closed questions are used to force a brief, often one-word answer.

• Closed questions can simply require a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer, for example:  ‘Do you smoke?’, ‘Did you feed the cat?’, ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’
• Closed questions can require that a choice is made from a list of possible options, for example: ‘Would you like beef, chicken or the vegetarian option?’, ‘Did you travel by train or car today?’
• Closed questions can be asked to identify a certain piece of information, again with a limited set of answers, for example: ‘What is your name?’, ‘What time does the supermarket open?’, ‘Where did you go to University?’

By contrast, to closed questions, open questions allow for much longer responses and therefore potentially more creativity and information.   There are lots of different types of open questions; some are more closed than others!