Tips on Writing Good Quiz Items

Donna Tatsuki

A sub-page of How to Write Web-Based Quizzes.

Although the purposes of quizzes may vary, one thing remains constant(item writing is an important factor in the construction of useful and satisfying quizzes. The following paragraphs look at ways to make multiple choice format-quizzes better. For those in a hurry, a checklist to assist with better item writing is provided at the end of this article. For those that wish to understand the reasoning behind each point in the list, read on. According to Osterlind (1998), there are four major issues in item construction. The first issue is that of the characteristics and functions of the items. This involves looking at item formats, and understanding the functions, they serve in measurement and performance. The second involves editorial suggestions or prescriptive rules for style and form. The final section is concerned with ethical and legal issues of relevance to quiz writers.

Characteristics and Functions of Quiz Items

First, it is useful to remember that even the most casually constructed quiz is made up of questions or "test items." Each one of these questions, whether the writer likes it or not, can be seen as a unit of measurement. In other words, a test item is a means of collecting information about the performance of the test taker that is quantifiable. Even if the explicit purpose of a quiz is learning through entertainment, some kind of score is generated. The number or score in a sense represents the test taker's performance and then allows that performance to be compared with the performance of others (or themselves if the test it taken more than once). Unfortunately, what a quiz item measures may be open to speculation. Indeed in poorly conceived quizzes, there seems to be no unifying theme or purpose in the series. To construct good items, there must be a strong congruence between the objective of the quiz and each of the quiz items. If the objective of a quiz is fuzzy, vague or too generalized the items become a haphazard collection with little relation to each other. Quizzes tend to be more satisfying if there is coherence in theme, purpose or structure. Take for example my own quiz A Green Quiz for St. Patrick's Day http://a4esl.org/q/h/dt/stpat.html. Although this has been quite a popular quiz and it appears to have a unifying theme (expressions containing the word green), the objective or purpose of singling these expressions out for a quiz is not so clear. Is the quiz taker expected to identify or recognize a word? Match a word and meaning? Match the meanings of two clauses? Analyze the parts of a word? Analyze the parts of an expression? Make an inference on the meaning of an unknown word based on the context? Unfortunately, the items in this quiz have a mixture of many of these objectives but not any one single purpose.

Practical Considerations of Style and Form

Osterlind (1998) devotes an entire chapter to the practical considerations faced by quiz item writers. These range from wording of the question stem to the number and plausibility of the response choices. Although many of his recommendations are just common sense, the numbers of quiz writers that actually follow them is small. First, precision in the wording of the question stem and response alternatives is of paramount importance. In other words, the information asked in the question must match the information available in the responses. Here is a poorly worded stem and responses:

Example 1

Clearly none of the alternatives provide a suitable answer to the question stem. A second concern is to make sure that the question stem and the response alternatives are distinct. That means, there should not be any unintended association between the question stem and the target response.

Example 2

Notice that the article "a" gives away the correct answer.

A third point is that quiz writers should avoid or be extremely cautious about using a question stem that is an incomplete statement with its completion listed in the response alternatives. One reason for this is that one or more of the alternative responses often make no grammatical sense or seem awkward. Thus, the best solution is to construct an interrogative question stem.

The question stem should have positive wording rather than negative. In other words, it is best to avoid wording like "Which is NOT." Positive wording in the question stem results in better, more realistic alternative response wordings too (see example number 2).

Determining the optimal number of alternative responses is also important to the reliability of a quiz and might affect the likelihood that a learner will finish the whole quiz. In a short quiz, more alternatives can make the quiz more reliable. In long quizzes, fewer response choices can still generate reliable scores. According to Osterlind, three responses is generally a safe number of response choices in a quiz of 20 to 30 items.

Finally, the response alternatives should all seem plausible. Some quiz writers add humorous distracters to make a quiz entertaining and that is certainly fine if that is the main purpose. A quiz constructed with measurement in mind can not afford ludicrous distracters. The quiz writer will need to decide if the goal is to entertain learners or to measure their knowledge. Certainly there is a need for both kinds of quizzes but the writer has the responsibility to choose one purpose and stick with it.

Layout considerations such as precision in numbering and lettering and consistency of indentation and spacing can be addressed by using a quiz template. Here are the directions for using The Internet TESL Journal's many versatile templates (http://a4esl.org/q/h/tour.html).

Ethical and Legal Considerations

As with all intellectual property, it is important to ask permission when borrowing other writers' items or an entire quiz. Permission is also required to incorporate another authors' text or graphics. The consequences of item theft can include loss of free web site privileges.

Quiz writing can be a creative and satisfying activity provided it is done with commonsense. To help remember the previous points and to ensure a quality product here is a quick quiz writing checklist.

Quiz Item Writing Checklist

Characteristics and Functions (whole quiz)

Style and Form (individual items)

Ethical and Legal Considerations

Reference

Osterlind, S. J. (1998). Constructing test items: Multiple-choice, constructed response, performance and other formats. Boston MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

A sub-page of How to Write Web-Based Quizzes.