Interviewing Rules
How to interview like a champ
Rule 1Avoid yes/no questions
Ask how, why, and describe questions!
How were you able to get involved in the activity?
Why did you choose to get involved in the activity?
Describe how it felt doing the activity.
Open ended Questions
Good: Tell me, why did you depose the King? Bad: Did you depose the king? Good: What will you do when the English
troops arrive? Bad: The English troops are coming, are you
scared?
WHICH IS RIGHT?
Was it nerve-wracking standing on stage
in front of the entire school for the Cultural
Festival?
How did it feel standing on stage in
front of the entire school for the Cultural
Festival?
A
B
Prepare something before you go
Rule 2
Before writing your questions, ask yourself some questions "What do I want to know?” "What does my audience need to know?” "Who is most likely to give me what I need?” "Who is closest to the action or issue?"
A few tips
Don’t waste the interviewee’s time by asking questions that could be answered through previous research.
Be personable but don’t make the interview about you and your stories.
Don’t interrupt. Listen and take extensive notes. Prepare in advance; write out your questions.
Prepare your questions
Prepare questions for at least two story angles
Write 10 questions Think about follow-up questions to possible
answers.
Before you go do an interview, have an idea of where you want the conversation to go so you get what will work with the information you already have.
You don’t want to get off track.
Rule 3Go with it
Okay, so while Rule 2 is saying stay on track, Rule 3 is all about going with the flow. While you do want the conversation to go a certain way, sometimes you can learn things you would have never asked based on where the conversation goes.
To do this, you will need to think of follow up questions on the spot.
If you get stupid (simple) answers, you didn’t do your PartStupid (simple) answers include:
“A lot”
Only facts, no emotion or opinions
No new information
Attempts to be funny
Cliches
Rule 4Listen/ follow-up questions/keep notes when interviewing.
Redirect after a simple answer GOOD: Answer: … so I’m not concerned at
the English presence, I’ll win easily. Question: Easily? How exactly? Answer: I’ll ….. Redirect: And if that does not happen, what
will you do then? Answer: Well I’ll be dead, so I suppose I’ll
start to smell and decompose slowly.
Listen and delve deeper
A good interviewer LISTENS to the answers. They use guiding question, but in reality the interview is just conversation that will cover certain points.
A BAD interviewer doesn’t listen and simply asks the question on his list – he misses vital information and the chance to find out more from his subject.
Listen to answers
GOOD: Answer: … so I’m not concerned at the English presence, I’ll win easily.
Question: Easily? How exactly? BAD: Answer: … so I’m not concerned at the
English presence, I’ll win easily. Question: That’s nice, So tell me, why did you
Kill Macduff’s family?
Cut down words so that you can keep up
with the person you’re interviewing.
There are people who are just SOOOO excited/zealous about what they’re taking
about, so they will talk so fast
Take Notes
I JUST LOOOOVVEEE BABIES. IF I COULD, I WOULD ADOPT ALL OF
THE WORLD’S BABIES. WHEN BABIES GET TO BE THREE OR FOUR, THEY’RE NO LONGER
BABIES, THUS THEY BORE ME. BABIES. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.
EXAMPLE:
What can you do?Record on your phone or come up with your own system,
like if someone says love or money, use the symbols of a heart or a dollar sign.
Additionally, cut down big words or words you would have to spend extra time trying to spell.
Abbreviation: abbrev. Bear in mind that
Computer: comp. you’re the one
university: univer. reading the notes
Rule 5When interviewing a person, always have
them write down their name or spell it out
Get a phone number in case you need clarification or more information.
You’d be amazed at how quickly Ron Weasley can turn into Roonil Wazlib.
Be polite/nice when entering classroom, speaking with the teacher and the
person you’re interviewing
Rule 6
Bear in mind that the student has a right to say no if the interview isn’t presented
to them in a positive way.
As well, why would I feel inclined to let you interview me if you’re being rude to
me?
I will give you this.
There are people who from the start put up a
fight when it comes to interviewing. Usually
it’s boys who are with their friends, or it
could just be a run-of-the-mill Negative
Nancy/Joaquin Phoenix.
The best thing to do, even though usually
you’re not supposed to do this, is lead them into saying things.
Example: You: How did it feel winning the game?NN/JP: Really good.You: Why did it feel good?NN/JP: We practiced a lot, so it was fulfilling.You: What kind of practices did you guys do?NN/JP: Sprints.You: Were the sprint drills you guys did difficult?NN/JP: Depends.You: What does it depend on?NN/JP: If the coach is mad.You: When would the coach get mad at you guys?NN/JP: Mainly when people weren’t listening.You: The coach had an issue getting everyone’s attention?NN/JP: Yeah, we were all tired by the time practice rolled around from
school, so it was just so draining. I guess they worked out for us in the end.
What should you have gathered from this?“It felt really good winning the game because of
all of the practicing the coach made us do beforehand. Even though Coach made us do
sprints as punishment for us not listening during practice since were all tired from
school, they actually worked out for us in the end.”