Nov
17
Are you asking this important interview question?
November 17, 2008 |
By Sarah Rigg
If you have any formal training in journalism, you probably know the “Who, what, when, where, why and how” method of generating interview questions.
Also, over time, you’ve also probably developed a more sophisticated system for coming up with interview questions and ways to slip in challenging questions. You probably have also learned the importance of asking follow up questions to unexpected tidbits that crop up in many interviews.
However, there’s one question I learned to ask during my years as a reporter that sometimes will get the juiciest tidbits of all. That’s the innocuous-sounding, “Is there anything else you want to tell me?” or, alternately, “We’ve covered a lot of material here. Is there anything we haven’t touched on that you think is important?”
This works well in less-controversial feature articles, but it also works surprisingly well even with interview subjects who are hostile or defensive. They are often itching to say something they have on their minds, and this is the question that elicits that information when no other question will.
Consider adding this question to the end of a few of your interviews, and see what you get.
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