...
Text within a questionnaire becomes a statement when it does not fulfill the criteria of becoming any of the other constructs (sequence, instruction or condition) and does not provide any context to be part of the question text. Statements can be found throughout the questionnaire; at the beginning, middle and end and they are used for both questions and sequences.
Statements are positional
Statements are control constructs that are independent of questions. Control constructs are concerned with positioning in a questionnaire. The statement's position is dependent upon where the text appears in the questionnaire; for example, if it appears before a question then it needs to be input before the question on Archivist, see Example 1.
...
Archivist view alspac_00_msdh:
Statements require unique labels
Statement ID labels are a way to understand the position of a statement within a questionnaire. In order for statements to have a unique label they need to refer back to either a question or a sequence. Statements are labelled with the prefix ‘s_intro_…’. If there is a statement connected to an entire section within a questionnaire then it needs to be labelled after the section and it always needs to be numbered; even if there is only one, see Example 2 below. For more on labelling statements please see constructing label (IDs) for more information.
...
Archivist view: alspac_00_msdh:
Statement text may need to be split into multiple statements
Some questionnaires have long continuous text with breaks at the beginning of a questionnaire explaining to the interviewee how to complete it, as shown in Example 3. In the Archivist view below you will see that five seperate statements have been entered. This is because when you have a series of statements they are entered seperately in where a carriage return is used in the questionnaire layout.
...
Archivist view nshd_61_iwm:
Statement text may need to be split into question text and statements
Some questions contain text which can be split into both statements and question text.
Example 4 Questionnaire: Food and Things 2004 (ALSPAC) Section B
...
Archivist view alspac_04_fat:
Statements sometimes look like sequences but they are not
Statements can also be mistaken for a sequence like in example 5 but is entered as a statement because it does not fulfill the criteria of a sequence; of having a clear start and end.
...
Questionnaire layout:
Archivist view us1_asc
Statements may contain context
Some statements have text that is contexually important information which is then repeated within the question such as in Example 6. This example shows a simple sentence before a question explaining what the next questions are about. The important context of ‘you and your family’ is repeated in the question.
...
Questionnaire layout:
Archivist layout us1_ysc
Statements are used for additional instructions
Finally some questions contain more than instruction which is not possible to input into Archivist. Therefore only one instruction is input and the remaining are entered as statements as shown in example 7:
...