Preparing interviews

out as well as on your experience and ease with doing interviews. Some researchers use one or more types in a study.

An interview can include the following components (Robson, 1993, p. 234):

• Introduction (purpose of interview, how long it will take, how the information will be used, consent matters, permission to tape record)
• Warm-up (easy, inviting questions to help you and the participant settle in and get comfortable)
• Main body of interview (the questions that relate most directly to your research purpose)
• Ending (questions to wind down with, if needed)
• Closure (thank you, good-bye)

The key to getting good data from interviews is to ask good questions. Asking good questions takes practice.

- Sharan Merriam (1988, p. 78)

Asking questions

Questions are a way to translate your research purposes into specific ways to collect information, as well as a way to invite participants to share what they know. As you develop questions, ask yourself how each one relates to your research question.

Patton (1990, pp. 290-292) suggests six kinds of questions to get different types of information:

Experience/behaviour. These aim to find out about experiences, behaviours, actions and activities that the researcher could have observed if present.

Opinion/value. These try to find out what people think about something.

Feeling questions. These are aimed at understanding people's emotional responses to experiences and thoughts.

Knowledge questions. These aim to find out about factual information related to the research topic (e.g., How many people come to this program? What services does the program offer?)

Sensory questions. These ask the participant to describe what s/he sees, hears, etc. (e.g., What do you see when you walk into the program?)