Talking Points
1. What works in your interviewing?
2. What needs work?
3. What goes into your notebook?
• Quotes
• Paraphrases
• Diagrams or drawings
• Phone numbers, addresses
• Descriptions
• Dialogue
4. Read Peter Rinearson's comment in "Winners on Interviewing" about admitting ignorance. What do you do when you don't understand something during an interview?
5. How do you prepare for an interview?
6. How do you react to people's emotions? If they cry? If they get angry or impatient? If they reveal bigotry, intolerance, hatred or prejudice, or other negative attitudes?
7. Read "Tools of the Trade" and "The Question Man" (also listed in the Resources section below). What kind of questions are you asking people? Are you listening to the answers or merely waiting for people to take a breath so you can interrupt with a comment?
Assignment Desk: Exercises in Interviewing
1. John Sawatsky and other interviewing experts identify two basic categories of questions: questions that encourage conversation and questions that stifle it. Some interviewing experts refer to these types as open-ended and closed-ended.
The most effective are open-ended, encouraging the person you're interviewing to respond fully. They are the opposite of closed-ended questions, which demand a brief, unequivocal response: "Yes," "No," "I don't know," or "No comment." I prefer the terms "conversation starters" and "conversation stoppers," or "green light" and "red light," because that's what they can do. Whatever you call them, the one you choose to ask may end up suppressing rather than inviting answers.
2. Diagnose your interviewing style. What are your strengths: empathy, note-taking, good eye for detail? What do you need to work on: setting ground rules, listening more closely, preparing more thoroughly?
3. Tape record one of your interviews. Transcribe the questions verbatim. How many are conversation starters? How many are conversation stoppers? Transcribe the answers. Compare the length of the answers.
4. Watch the movie "All the President's Men" and discuss Woodward and Bernstein's interviewing techniques. Do you think they always acted ethically?
More Resources
"Loosening Lips – The Art of the Interview" by Eric Nalder
http://www.notrain-nogain.org/train/res/reparc/lips.asp
"The Good Interview" -- Tips compiled by Laurie Hertzel
http://www.notrain-nogain.org/Train/Res/Report/intv.asp
"The Question Man" -- A Profile of John Sawatsky by Susan Paterno
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=676
"Tools of the Trade: The Question" by Chip Scanlan
http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=5075
"Interviewing: The Ignored Skill" by Bob Steele
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=36&aid=37661
"Interview Techniques" by Bob Steele
http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=36&aid=38681
