INTERVIEWING AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS HSV 130
INTERVIEW GUIDE FORMAT
IDENTIFYING INFORMATION A) Your name and today’s date (for example – Jim Wilwerding, 1/22/2009) B) Interview number (#2) C) Type of interview (probing, persuasive, survey, etc) D) Purpose statement (what do you want to know and what will you do with that information?) PRE-INTERVIEW PREPARATION A) Research objectives/method (what do you need to know before doing the interview and how will you learn it?) B) Who are you interviewing, how does this person(s) fit the purpose, what other issues might affect rapport or other elements of the interview? C) Location, timing and related issues (how will the setting, etc. fit the purpose?) D) Scheduling the interview (how will you make the appointment and how does this fit the purpose?) OPENING A) Introductory statement (how will you begin the interview?) B) Establishing rapport (what level of interaction will you want to develop and how will you work the relationship towards achieving the purpose?) C) Orientation (how will you develop appropriate ground rules and achieve mutual agreement to work towards a common purpose) BODY A) Sequencing (tunnel, funnel, inverted funnel, etc) B) Schedule (nonscheduled, moderately scheduled, highly scheduled, etc) C) Type of questions (how will you use open /closed, neutral/leading, primary/secondary and other forms of questions to gain information?) D) Clearinghouse transition question (how will you gather additional information that was not obtained during previous questioning?) E) Topic outline and/or sample questions (give a few of the questions and/or an outline of what you will discuss in the body) CLOSING A) Transitioning the relationship into its next phase (how will you signal the ending of an interview?) B) Future plans (will you need to contact the interviewee again? making arrangements to meet again?) C) Summarization of the interview (review the information that you obtained, how the purpose has been achieved and check for accuracy) D) Closure (the exiting from work back into isolation)
The interview guide is a tool developed to prepare for the interview. It should define what will be done and how the method will fit the purpose.