English 104 Unit II

C. Interviewing: Asking Interview Questions

One way to think of an interview (or a conversation or group discussion) is as a process of communication between Speaker and Listener(s). In your interview you will alternate between these two primary roles.

Your first role is that of Speaker. As the Speaker, you control the direction of the interview or conversation by asking main and follow up questions. In this role, it will be useful for you to use opening or lead-in expressions for both types of questions. These expressions serve two functions. First, since you will be interviewing someone who is probably a stranger to you, you can make your questioning seem more polite if you use opening or lead-in expressions for your main questions. Second, some of these expressions can give organizational cues to your listener.

First, opening expressions will "soften" direct questions, and therefore make them seem more polite. Sometimes a direct question, addressed to a stranger, may appear to be aggressive or perhaps rude. Direct questions are often preceded by an opening expression, or changed into an indirect question. For example, it might seem rude to a stranger if you asked, "Where is the campus bus stop?" This direct question could be introduced with the expression, "Maybe you can help me. Where is the campus bus stop?" Or, the direct question could be made less direct: "Could you tell me where the campus bus stop is?" Your listener will understand that this is not a yes/no question, but a request for directions.

Some lead-in expressions:

In addition, lead-in expressions also help your listener know more about the direction and organization of the interview. They can be used to enumerate main questions, change from one main question to the next, or let the listener know approximately how many questions remain.

Some organizing lead-in expressions:

Grammatically, most of these expressions are followed by an indirect question (embedded question). For example, "Where's the campus bus stop?" might be changed to, "Could you tell me where the campus bus stop is?" In formal, written English, this is always considered the correct and acceptable form. However, in informal and spoken English, you may sometimes notice that the grammatical form of the direct question is retained, even when it is introduced by a lead-in question. This often is true when the main verb is a form of to be: "The first thing I'd like to know is, where are the campus bus stops?" When this informal form occurs, sentence timing changes slightly. In particular, there is a slightly longer than usual pause after the main verb.
 

This "Interviewing" document was created by J. Taaffe