Consistent terminology

Do you know what a closed question is?

I’m sure I didn’t learn about open and closed questions until much later, but my children are learning this in primary school. This is a good thing as it can help them communicate socially as well as within their school work.

Closed questions – elicits a simple response. For example, the question “do you like blue or green?” can be answered with one word.

Open (or open ended) questions – give scope for more detailed and complex responses. Open questions such as “why is blue your favourite colour?” or “what do you like about that book?” require longer answers and can lead to a discussion.

Thick and thin questions?

Have you ever heard questions referred to as thin and thick questions rather than open and closed?

The first time I knew of the thin/thick nomenclature was when I saw some work my daughter did at school. I know enough about open/closed questions to figure out what was meant by thin and thick so I interpreted the schoolwork very quickly. And I assumed the children had been taught thin/thick instead of open/closed.

Then I read the schoolwork in more detail.

The instructions swap between thick/thin and open/closed questions without any explanation that they are the same concept (and not even in the same order which makes it even harder to correlate the pairs of words). Given that this activity is obviously aimed at teaching children about open/closed questions, surely it would be better to use the same terminology for the one activity.

It’s one thing for me as a professional writer to read these instructions and follow them easily. It’s something else entirely for a seven year old who is grappling with what these terms mean and finding examples of each type!

And my daughter said they were only taught about open/closed questions – she figured it out (and I think she did a good job devising relevant questions in the activity). I’m sure many of her classmates would have struggled if they were left to do this activity just by reading the instructions.

The lesson?

Stay consistent!

If you start using one term (or set of terms) when writing, then continue using that term throughout.

Even if you explain there are alternatives, stick to one term in your content. For instance, if you are writing about saving money, you may write something like

Contributing to your savings can be done more or less frequently. Contributions, also known as deposits or account credits, will attract interest and thus increase your savings over time. When deciding how much to contribute, you may consider your income, expenses and lifestyle choices.

You may not be writing for children, and your audience may easily figure out your message, but why make it harder to read than necessary? Why risk them not understanding and/or disengaging in your content?

Being consistent makes your writing easier to read and understand, looks more professional and will probably help search engines recognise a keyword in your online writing.