Semantic Differential Scale

Another widely used question type is the semantic differential, which typically involves descriptive endpoints and a numerical scale in which to select how strongly one feels about something. The semantic differential scale is supported in the system as follows:

General Format

    <semantic>    <text [question text] >    <endpoints /endpoint1 /endpoint2>    <list /choice1/choice2/choice3/choice4/choice5...>    </semantic> 

<semantic> is the required keyword for the semantic differential question text.

<text [question text]> the question text follows the keyword.

<endpoints /./..> specifies the two endpoint descriptions which are displayed on the screen for that question.

<list /./././.....> specifies the individual choices which the respondent will select from when answering the survey.

</semantic> closes the markup.

Example

    <semantic>    <text Shoveling snow is lots of fun.    1=Agree, 4=Neutral, 7=Disagree>    <endpoints /agree /disagree>    <list/1/2/3/4/5/6/7>    </semantic> 

This will produce the following output:

     Shoveling snow is lots of fun.     1=Agree 4=Neutral 7=Disagree 1          2          3          4          5          6          7 Agree                                                         Disagree 

The study of the interaction with this specially designed markup command language using various interface tools (menus, help systems) is one of the components of this research.