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Observation - Method of data collection in which the situation of interest is watched and the relevant facts, actions, or behaviors are recorded.

Observation Error - Nonsampling error that arises because inaccurate information is secured from the sample elements or because errors are introduced in processing the data or in reporting the findings.

Office Error - Nonsampling error that arises in the processing of the data because of errors in editing, coding, entering, tabulating, or some other part of the analysis.

Open-Ended Questions - Questions characterized by the condition that respondents are free to reply in their own words rather than being limited to choosing from among a set of alternatives.

Operational Definition - Definition of a construct that describes the operations to be carried out in order for the construct to be measured empirically.

Ordinal Scales - Measure magnitude and are quantitative in nature. They allow one to rank order the elements being measured according to whether they possess more, less, or the same amount of the variable being measured. Respondents are frequently given a list of several factors and asked to rank them in order of importance.

Outlier - Observation so different in magnitude from the rest of the observations that the analyst chooses to treat it as a special case.

Overcoverage Error - Nonsampling error that arises because of the duplication of elements in the list of sampling units.