6 tips for writing better interview questions
Interviews are a great way to practice writing skills, regardless of genre. But how do you write interview questions that produce effective conversations? I talk about it in this article and to find the answer to this very important question, as well as my experience, I also asked some writer and journalist friends for advice.
The magic of an interview
Interviews are much more than a tool. For writers and journalists, interviews produce ideas, voice and more. But in an interview, the goal is to have a conversation, not an interrogation. A good interviewer is one who puts his interlocutor at ease.
Constantly going back to the list of interview questions can make the person you're interviewing nervous. Your interview shouldn't be something the person may have responded to via email. The questions should spark a conversation that goes beyond the prepared questions.
So how do you make your interviewee comfortable? How do you prepare the right questions, the ones that stimulate conversation?
I love this story by Porter Anderson :
I interviewed Cokie Roberts (Emmy-winning reporter) once for a magazine. I asked her about all the needlework she had in her office. He grabbed a piece he was working on, a duck, and worked on it as we chatted. We discovered that his favorite vacation spot was not far from my sea island off the coast of South Carolina.
Your ability to be present, to keep your nose out of your notebook, will make your interviews brilliant.
To be more present, I always write down a dozen questions before entering a face-to-face or telephone interview. President Eisenhower said, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
Your questions are your battle plans. You may not use all of them, but they prepare your mind for the task ahead and set you up for more effective conversation.
How do I write better interview questions?
After talking to a group of friends, journalists and writers, about the kind of questions they ask in interviews. I've developed these six tips that will help you write better questions:
1. Ask about the person's habits.
Obviously, it depends on the person, but ask the people I interview about their specific habits and practices . Don't be interested, for example, in what they say or would write in a book, but more interested in how they try to apply the ideals of which they write or speak.
In this way, try to escape a person's rhetoric to see what routines he has cultivated to be successful. If you can get people to describe their actions rather than their beliefs about themselves, you'll see a clearer picture of them, not marred by slogans.
2. Ask "forward" questions.
Never ask, 'What keeps you up at night?' Ask 'What will keep you up tonight after this interview?'
When you subscribe to the blog, we will send you an e-mail when there are new updates on the site so you wouldn't miss them.
By accepting you will be accessing a service provided by a third-party external to https://www.insightadv.it/
Comments