Interviewing Rules How to interview like a champ

Rule 1 Avoid 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 3 Go 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 Part Stupid (simple) answers include: “A lot” Only facts, no emotion or opinions No new information Attempts to be funny Cliches

Rule 4 Listen/ 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 5 When 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.”