Several books and articles on MC item writing provide additional guidelines and examples that illustrate good and bad item writing: See, for example, Hoepfl (1994); Gronlund (1993); Ellsworth, Dunnell, and Duell (1990); Osterlind (1989); Haladyna and Downing (1989); end Aiken (1987). Gronlund (Chapter 3) gives an extensive treatment for writing MC items and provides a list of 18 rules for writing MC questions. Ellsworth et al. (1990) reviewed nine educational measurement and 33 educational psychology textbooks to identify MC item-construction guidelines. From their review, the authors identified the 12 most-cited recommendations. Haladyna and Downing (1989) reviewed 96 studies to develop 43 item-writing rules. Aiken reviewed several textbooks on educational testing, from which he compiled a list of 14 guidelines for writing MC items. The following is a list and brief discussion of the most-cited rules and guidelines presented by these authors and used in this study:
Present a single, clearly formulated problem in the stem of the item. If more than one problem is given and the student fails the question, it is not possible to identify which problem caused the error.

1. State the stem in simple, clear language. Poorly written or complex questions may cause knowledgeable students to answer incorrectly. Avoid unnecessary statements in the stem and do not continue teaching on an exam.
2. Put as much wording as possible into the stem. It is inefficient to repeat words, and students will have less difficulty with shorter items.
3. When possible, state the stem in positive form. Asking a student to identify an incorrect alternative does not necessarily test whether the student knows the correct answer. Knowing what is true is generally a more important learning outcome than knowing what is not true. Negatively phrased items are often written, however, because they are easier to create: Positively stated items require the author to devise three distractors for a four-alternative question, but a negatively stated item requires that only one plausible alternative be devised--the answer.
4. Emphasize (by using italics and/or boldface) negative wording whenever it is used in the stem. Not emphasizing negative wording may cause such wording to be overlooked.
5. Be certain that the intended answer is correct or clearly the best. Test quality will be improved and arguments from students will be lessened.
6. Alternatives should be grammatically consistent with the stem and parallel in form. Violations of this guideline may provide clues to the correct answer or aid students in eliminating distractors that do not match.
7. Avoid verbal clues that may eliminate a distractor or lead to the correct answer. There are several forms of verbal clues:

(a) Avoid similarity of wording in the stem and the correct answer. Similar wording can make the correct response more attractive to students who do not know the answer.

(b) The correct answer should not be more detailed or include more textbook language than the distractors.

(c) Avoid absolute terms in the distractors. Test-wise students will eliminate distractors containing words like "all," "only," or "never," because such statements are usually false.

(d) Avoid pairs of responses that are all-inclusive. This structure allows students to eliminate other alternatives because the inclusive pair covers all possibilities. An uninformed student would have a 50% chance of guessing the correct answer.

(e) Avoid responses that have the same meaning. Students will eliminate those alternatives because there can be only one correct answer.