Field Research DESIGNING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS THAT ELICIT THE RESPONSES THAT DIRECTLY RELATE TO YOUR RESEARCH PROBLEM/ISSUE PRESENTED BY PROFESSOR XINIA FOSTER OCTOBER 2015

Before you Start Designing Your Questions: You must ask yourself the following question about the interview and the person you will be interviewing (interviewee):  What is the purpose of this interview?  Why is the person or persons I am interviewing the best audience for my interview?  What credentials, authority, or experience do they possess that makes them the correct candidate for this interview?  What do I hope to accomplish with this interview? What outcomes am I seeking?  How will their input contribute to my paper?

Next: Question Design The next step in the interview process is designing the question  When formulating the question you must decide what type of questions you will use (See page 285 in the A & B textbook)  Fixed –choice question: These questions offer choices to the interviewee-focuses their answers, but limits their ability to expand on their answer.  Open-ended question: These question allows the interviewee to answer a question and expand upon it, however, they could veer off the topic or Segway into another topic—you might loose control of the interview or have to re-direct.

Question Design Continued  Category Questions: These types of questions are good for establishing demographics and baseline information. These questions will yield data, but no elaboration.  Scaled-answer questions: Will provide you with a temperature reading of the interviewee’s opinion of feelings on a specific issue. This question is helpful in getting a sense of the interviewee’s stand and viewpoint on your topic. The down side to this type of question is that again, it is a fixed choice answer that will not provide you additional information. Another downside to this type of question is that it leave the interpretation of terms to the interviewee.

Thirdly—Factors surrounding the interview and influencing the question design When designing the questions for your interview you should factor into your design:  Time: How much time will you have with the interviewee—if you have 30 minutes, you need to focus on the main topics your need to cover immediately in order to acquire the information before your time runs out. If, on the other hand, you have an undetermined or a less limiting amount of time to conduct your interview, then you can incorporate more varied questions into your interview.  Method: How you will conduct the interview might also influence your questions. Will you conduct an interview face-to-face, via , will your Skype, or talk on the phone. Each one of these has its own set of advantages and disadvantages and you must be aware of this.

Wrap Up  Although on the surface, designing interview questions seems simple enough you have many things to consider and the choices you make will determine if you obtain the outcome you desired, obtain the information you sought, and even if you are able to finish an interview.  As always, you must wallow in complexity and use common sense to be successful.

…Questions  Speaking of questions, do you have any questions for me?