Saturday, September 8, 2012
Research interviews
Although I haven't done any research interviews in recent days, I did do a few in high school for journalism purposes. The best way to interview someone properly and effectively is to have good interview questions. The kind of questions you choose can either elicit really interesting responses from the person being interviewed, or they could leave you with a one word answer that you might not even be able to use for anything. Other than having good questions, it is important and helpful to be conversational when interviewing people. If the whole interview is just the interviewer asking the question and getting just the answer specifically, it may appear more awkward than they'd like. To avoid this, it can be helpful to treat the interview as a conversation that just happens to have required questions thrown in the middle. This method could yield good material when the interviewer least expects it!
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I agree, Colonel, that having some good questions prepared for the interview is key. I too have limited experience with conducting research interviews.
ReplyDeleteHowever the frustration I felt in a couple of those few instances,
was the feeling that in sticking so strictly to the topic at hand, that perhaps I was missing out on the important human connection.
So, I like how you said that it is helpful to treat the interview more as a conversation. I will think of it more in this way, should the opportunity arise in the future for me to interview or be interviewed.
I'm also trying to grasp this concept in public speaking. Most of all trying to get over the anxiety of standing in front of a group, talking with all eyes on me. Experiencing the speech giving process as an extemporaneous conversation is a work in progress.
Got a little side-tracked there.
P.S. Hey Colonel Mustard...where did you do the dirty deed with the candlestick? :)
Wow, did not remember that I also did research interviews for journalism until I read this blog. I used to be yearbook copy-editor and when I wasn't getting interviews to write a story, I would be correcting other people's work. I remember that the best interviews would be the ones where everything is very casual and although you ask the questions you prepared, if you also ask around that instead of being straight forward, you get so much more information and it is much more pleasant to talk and carry on a conversation. But as you said, sometimes it was just plain awkward.
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