Course: CMM 128 Interviewing Practices

Lecture Notes

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Question Classifications

Questions can be classified in four possible ways:
- Opened or closed
- Primary or secondary
- Neutral or leading
- A special case

All questions are either opened or closed.

Type of Question | Definition | Uses | Examples
Open | Open questions give the interviewee a great deal of freedom to say as much or as little as they want. | Open-ended questions are used in situations where the interviewer does not know a lot about the subject or where the interviewer wants to get a lot of information from the interviewee. Probing interviews and Employment interviews use a lot of opened questions | Tell me about yourself. What else can you tell me?
Closed | Closed questions limit the response an interviewee can give. Highly closed questions limit the interviewee to only two possible answers (e.g., yes or no). Questions that are not as closed are multiple choice questions. | Closed-ended questions are used in situations where the interviewer wants to control how long the interview lasts and is not concerned with explanations of why the interviewee chose a particular answer. Survey interviews use a lot of closed questions. | Do you like this class? Do you prefer chicken, beef, fish, or lasagna?

All questions can also be classified as either primary or neutral.

Type of Question | Definition | Uses | Examples
Primary
Primary questions make sense by themselves; they are questions that introduce a new topic.
Primary questions are essentially used in every interview. Survey interviews tend to use more primary questions than other types of interviews
What do you like about this class?

Tell me about yourself.

Do you prefer chicken, beef, fish, or lasagna?

Do you like this class?
Secondary
Secondary questions are follow-up questions; they build upon previous answers and often don't make sense unless you know what the previous question or answer was.
Secondary questions are used when the interviewer wants to get in-depth answers. Journalists (probing interviews) and employers use them extensively.
What else can you tell me?

When you say dollars, do you mean Canadian or U.S. dollars?

Why did you do that?

Go on.

A third way to classify questions is as neutral or leading.

Classification | Definition | Uses | Examples
Neutral
Neutral questions do not suggest to the interviewee how you want him or her to answer the question. Note that questions seeking verification of an answer are still considered neutral. For example, the question, "When you say dollars, do you mean Canadian? is a neutral verification question, not a leading question.
Probing, employment, counseling, and health care use neutral questions to get an honest answer from the interviewee
Tell me about yourself.

Why did you do that?

Go on.

What else can you tell me?

Do you like this class?

Do you prefer chicken, beef, fish, or lasagna?
Leading | Leading questions suggest to the interviewee the answer you expect him or her to give. Questions can be made leading by adding a tag line at the end of the question like, "don't you" or can be made leading by the use of language that biases the answer. | Leading questions may be used in persuasive situations or may be used to incite a reaction from the interviewee. | You do like this class, don't you? You didn't do something dumb like order fish, did you? Do you think idiots should be allowed to own guns?

Some questions can also be classified as a special case.

Bipolar questions
These are always closed questions that limit the number of possible responses to two. Some bipolar questions should be avoided and are known as the question pitfall called a bipolar trap. Sometimes it is useful to use bipolar questions if you want to control how long the interview lasts and the answers the interviewee gives. The following are examples of bipolar questions.

- Do you like this class?
- You didn't do something dumb like order fish, did you?
- Do you think idiots should be allowed to own guns?
- Do you have a sister?
- Is there anything else I should know? (This is a bipolar trap)

Loaded questions
Loaded questions are always leading (although not all leading questions are loaded). They involve a question with strong, negative language. Loaded questions might be used to get a reaction from the interviewee or to purposely bias the results of a survey in your favor. The following are examples of loaded questions:

- Do you like this stupid class?
- Do you think idiots should be allowed to own guns?
- You didn't do something dumb like order fish, did you?

Clearinghouse questions
These are always secondary and neutral questions that find out if there is anything else that the interviewee can say about a topic. Clearinghouse questions are very useful in a variety of interviews. In probing interviews, they help identify information that might have been missed otherwise. In employment interviews, they give the applicant a chance to point out their strengths. In persuasive interviews, they help uncover objections that the interviewee may have to a persuasive appeal. The following are examples of clearinghouse questions:

- Is there anything else I should know? (a poorly worded clearinghouse)
- What else should I know?
- What more can you tell me?
- What additional facts are there?

Mirror questions
These are always secondary, neutral, and closed-ended questions that verify several previous answers. The following are examples of mirror questions:

- So your name is Rick, you live in Grayslake, and have a dog, is that right?
- As I understand what we've been talking about, you can start on Monday, will finish by Thursday, require half of the money now, and I can pay you the rest when you finished and I am satisfied with the work.

Reflective questions
These are always secondary, neutral, and closed-ended questions that verify one previous answers. The following are examples of reflective questions:

- Did you say your name was Rick?
- When you say dollars, do you mean Canadian or U.S. dollars?
- Do you spell that R.I.C.K.?

Nudging probes
These are always open, secondary, and neutral questions that encourage the interviewee to continue on talking about whatever he or she has been talking about. These differ from a clearinghouse question which moves into a different follow-up area. For example, "Continue telling me what you did" is a nudging probe while "What else can you tell me about what you did?" is a clearinghouse. The question, "What did you do next?" is a follow-up question but not a special case. Nudging probes are used to get more in-depth answers. The following are examples of nudging probes.

- Go on.
- Continue.
- (Silence)
- Uh-huh

There are several rules of thumb about classifying questions and you can read them on the next page.