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.”