different types of interview essay

Write an A+ Interview Paper Using Our Tips and Examples

06 September, 2021

13 minutes read

Author: Josh Carlyle

You will quickly find yourself with your back to the wall once your teacher assigns you an interview paper. Studying is often a headache by itself, and now you have to conduct interviews. Worse yet, you probably have no idea how you can do this. Luckily, we will tell you how to write an interview paper step by step in this comprehensive guide. So prepare your favorite drink and learn how to write a top-notch interview paper.

What is an Interview Paper?

An interview paper provides an expert opinion on a specific issue. In essence, it is an interview transcript inserted somewhere between the introduction and conclusion of an academic piece.

How long should it be? It depends on the topic and the length of your interview, but most papers are within the length of 2,000 – 5,000 words. What things should you consider before writing an interview paper in the first place? Let’s check them out below.

General Aspects of Writing an Interview Paper

Academic papers require you to provide arguments based on studies, research pieces, statistics, etc. But an interview paper is different – for this type of essay, you will develop assumptions around an expert’s opinion.

Let’s imagine your essay question reads the following: “Should we ban abortions?” If you write an interview paper, you should ask someone high-powered for their consideration. Let them be an executive director of the American Gynecological & Obstetrical Society.

You would reach them via email or phone or whatever communication channel you prefer and conduct an interview. Afterward, you would put all your findings on paper.

But in practice, writing an interview paper involves many more complexities and challenges, like planning, topic research , drafting, etc.

Let’s speak straight facts: nobody will reschedule their week to meet you because you need to do some homework. You’re one of the millions of students, and the local governor or a famous scientist won’t give you an interview nine times out of ten.

So you would want to target someone less busy, like professors from other faculties of your college or some researchers within your academic environment. Hunting a bigger fish is pointless unless you’re a well-established journalist working for a popular media channel. If you struggle to find someone within your college/university, you can contact people from your circle.

Writing Outline and Structure of an Interview Paper

As you know, a typical paper consists of three parts:

Introduction. This part includes background information, the hook, the thesis statement, and the transition.
Body. It is the longest part of the paper consisting of several paragraphs. It should contain the actual interview.
Conclusion. The final part summarizes the considerations and insights of your essay.

The question is: ‘where should you put an interview transcript and how do you do this?’

To answer this question, you need to come up with the interview papers format in the first place. There are several of them:

The narrative format implies that you can use either direct or indirect speech when referring to your interviewee. If you choose this path, you can stick to a 5-paragraph essay structure, retell the considerations of your interviewee, and cite their words here and there at your discretion.

You can also choose this format if you contact several people. Check what a narrative interview paper structure looks like when you reach out to several people:

Introduction.
Paragraph #1 – the first interviewee’s perspective.
Paragraph #2 – the second interviewee’s opinion.
Paragraph #3 – the third interviewee’s thoughts.
Conclusion.

Alternatively, you can dedicate each paragraph to a particular idea of one person.

“Question and answer” will suit your needs perfectly if you interview one person. It is the simplest format used in online magazines, news reports, and other media. Your interview paper outline will look like this:

Introduction
Question #1 – Answer #1
Question #2 – Answer #2
Question #3 – Answer #3
Question #4/5/6/etc. – Answer #4/5/6/etc.
Interview analysis. You may include your thoughts on the subject matter.

Conversational

Conversational style is informal, and you can use either first-person or second-person narrative and follow a typical 5-paragraph paper structure. But writing interview papers in this lousy style might be perplexing, especially if you deal with this task for the first time.

We advise you to try the Q&A format because it’s the simplest one and takes the least time. Just imagine how much time your paper writing will take if you decide to interview three or five people.

How to Start an Interview Paper?

If you have no idea how to start an interview paper, choose the topic first. Selecting a topic for your interview paper is not a big deal, but you should keep in mind that you may not find appropriate interviewees for it.

Let’s imagine you want to explore whether the government should force people to get vaccines. This topic implies that you need to contact authorities. It might be a local lawyer, governor, or executive director of a local hospital. Well, the chances are these people will politely refuse to give an interview for your homework.

But if you choose to investigate how lockdown impacts intellectual workers, you can contact your friends or family members who work at home. In other words, it’s better to choose topics that reflect the experiences of ordinary people rather than the opinions of untouchable experts.

Asking people for their opinion about well-known facts like the Earth’s shape is a bad idea. You would want to choose high-profile debatable topics you can actually discuss.

Establish the Goal of Your Interview Essay

You have to establish the goal of your essay before researching the topic. For this, ask yourself: “What message should your interview essay deliver?” Sometimes, a topic of your choice might already explain the purpose of your essay.

Conduct Research

Interviewing someone implies that you should ask questions. But you will fail to do so if you know little to nothing about your topic. So read some case studies, news, articles, etc. Once you get the picture of your subject matter, you will come up with dozens of interview questions.

Get to Know Your Interviewee

A good interviewer always refers to the life and experience of their interviewee. If you’re lucky to work with someone you can read about on the Internet, find out as much information about them as possible. If your interviewee publishes any books, articles, or studies, you will better know them as well.

The more you know about the person, the more interview questions you can come up with. You can ask them whether the Internet tells their true story: “Is it true that you, Mr. Interviewee, support flat earthers?”

Draft Your Interview Questions

If you want a person to share their in-depth vision of the topic, you need to ask both open-ended and close-ended (“yes/no”) questions. However, you may struggle to prepare interview questions. Many students get stuck during this stage. To overcome this block, you need to learn some types of interview questions:

Opinion – What do you think of this topic?
Behavioral – What would you do in this situation?
Experience and knowledge – What do you know about the subject?
Background – How are you connected to the subject? What is your age, occupation, etc?
Emotional – How do you feel about the subject?
Sensory – What does the subject taste and feel like?

You can also think of the questions following the interviewee’s “yes” and “no” answers.

Tips for Conducting a Successful Interview

These four tips will help you conduct a productive interview on the first try:

1. Plan Your Meeting

Note that you want to interview a person in a quiet place so that nobody will distract you. This might be some cozy book store or a café. Or, you can arrange an online meeting. Make sure you have at least one hour for the interview.

2. Rehearse a bit

If you will conduct your first-ever interview, you want to practice with your friends/significant other/ family in the first place. This approach will help you identify what stage of your upcoming interview may challenge you the most.

3. Record Your Interview

You will forget about 50% of the information within an hour once you finish the interview. So don’t rely on your memory − bring a recorder instead. Why not take notes? You wouldn’t want to go red while asking your interviewee to repeat what they have just said or wait until you write down their answers.

4. Talk to Your Interviewee for a While Before You Begin

Speaking to someone you don’t know might be uncomfortable. You don’t have to attack them with your interview questions straightaway. Instead, you can exchange some casual phrases or discuss the weather. This will help you relieve stress and get comfortable with each other.

5. Explain Your Interview Protocol

It’s better to explain to your interviewee how you will conduct your interview. Tell them that you will use a recorder and introduce the discussion topic.

Interview Papers Format

In academic writing, you have to explain the purpose of your interview and introduce your interviewee in a specific “scholarly” format. The APA format interview paper has the following requirements:

Use 12-point Times New Roman.
Write a title page.
Use double spacing.
Introduce your interviewee and provide the background information – explain why this person is suitable for the interview. Mention their name and qualifications.
Use direct quotes if you cite some facts provided by the interviewee.
Use block quotes for citations longer than 40 words.

How to Write a Title Page?

The title of your paper must include your name, your institution, department, the course name and number, the teacher’s name, and the assignment date. The rules of writing the title page are the following:

The title page must be numbered.
Capitalize all major words in your title and make it bold.
Place the title of the essay three or four lines down the top of the page.
There must be one empty line before the student’s name.

Interview Papers Examples

If you’re searching for an interview essay example – check several samples below:

A narrative interview essay .
A Q&A interview format paper.
An interview with a scientist.

Interview Papers Writing Tips

The following writing tips will help you deliver the first-class interview paper:

Write the introduction at the end. Once you finish your essay, you will likely reconsider some ideas you had before you began. They will help you frame your interview essay with a captivating introduction and conclusion.
Give yourself a break after finishing your final draft. This will help you look at your paper with a fresh pair of eyes once you start editing.
Edit one type of error at a time. For example, you can reduce logical errors first and switch to grammatical mistakes afterward.
Use an active voice. If active voice makes your sentence shorter, use it without hesitation.
Check for any sample interview paper to decide on the interview questions. Perhaps, some pieces will spark your interest.

Writing Help by Handmadewriting

An interview paper doesn’t seem that intimidating once you learn how to write it step by step. First, you have to choose the subject that allows you to interview ordinary people rather than hard-to-reach ones. Then, you need to research your topic, conduct an interview, and write a paper.

You can get an A+ for this assignment with enough effort and dedication. But a doable task doesn’t necessarily mean that you must do it by yourself. If you have plenty of other assignments to do, you can ask our essay writers to craft an exemplary interview paper for you. For this, you can place an order on our website, and we will do all the dirty work.

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Types of Interviews – A Simple Guide & Examples

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The methodology of employing different types of interviews plays a pivotal role in research, allowing for deep, qualitative insight into subjects’ experiences and perspectives. From structured to semi-structured and unstructured interviews, each type provides unique and invaluable information to meet diverse research objectives. In this guide, we will learn about the different types of interviews and where they are best applied.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Types of Interviews – In a Nutshell
2 Definition: Types of interviews
3 Types of interviews – Structured interview
4 Types of interviews – Semi-structured interview
5 Types of interviews – Unstructured interview
6 Types of interviews – Focus group
7 Types of interviews – Examples of interview questions
8 Pros and Cons of different types of interviews

Types of Interviews – In a Nutshell

The types of interviews you can use in research are structured interviews, unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews, and focus group interviews.
The interviewer effect is a bias that arises when the characteristics of the researcher influence the responses of the interviewees.
A focus group is a research method that involves asking interview questions to a small group of people.

Definition: Types of interviews

There are three types of interviews, and these differ in the structure of the questions. The types of interviews are structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, and unstructured interviews. Structured interviews involve the use of set questions, and these must be asked in a given order. On the other hand, unstructured interviews are flexible and feature open-ended questions. Semi-structured interviews have elements of both structured and unstructured interviews.

Types of interviews – Structured interview

A structured interview is one where the questions are predetermined and set in a particular order. Typically, the questions will be closed-ended and will offer multiple choices. Since the questions are asked in a set order, it is easy for the researcher to compare responses and determine the patterns. Structured interviews help to mitigate biases and offer higher levels of validity and reliability. You can use this type of interview in the following cases:

You understand the subject thoroughly and can design excellent questions
You don’t have sufficient time and resources to carry out the research
Your research question depends on a strong parity between the respondents

Types of interviews – Semi-structured interview

Semi-structured interviews have elements of both structured and unstructured interviews. With these interviews, the researcher will have an idea of the questions to ask, but the phrasing and order of the questions will not be set. Since they are often open-ended, the researcher will enjoy high levels of flexibility, and they will still be able to compare the responses fairly easily. These types of interviews are ideal in these situations:

The researcher has a lot of experience in interviews
The research question is exploratory in nature

Types of interviews – Unstructured interview

Unstructured interviews are also known as non-directive interviewing, and they don’t have a set pattern. Also, questions are not arranged in advance. These interviews are used as exploratory research tools and are commonly used in social sciences and humanities. Here are some occasions when an unstructured interview will be a great fit:

If the research question is exploratory in nature
If the research requires you to form a connection with your respondents

Types of interviews – Focus group

With focus group interviews, the researcher will present the questions to a group instead of an individual. These types of interviews don’t just study the responses of the interviewees; they also study the group dynamic and body language. The main issue with focus group interviews is that they have low external validity, and the interviewer may be biased when choosing the responses to include. Here are a few cases where focus group interviews can be suitable:

If the study depends on group discussion dynamics
If the questions are complex and can’t be answered with multiple choices
If the study is open to uncovering new ideas and questions

Types of interviews – Examples of interview questions

The types of interview questions will vary depending on the type of interview. With structured interviews, the questions are set and precise, but the other types of interviews allow for flexible and open-ended questions.

Pros and Cons of different types of interviews

Interviews can help you collect useful information, but the types of interviews come with different pros and cons.

What is an interviewer effect?

This is a type of bias that emerges when the characteristics of an interviewer affect the responses given by the respondents.

When should you use unstructured interviews?

Unstructured interviews are great for building a bond with the respondent, and they can be used in cases where the interviewer needs the interviewee to be 100% honest.

When should you use structured interviews?

Structured interviews will be a good option for your research if you have limited time and resources. This is because they are easy to analyze.

What are the three types of interviews in research?

The three types of interviews in research are structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, and unstructured interviews.

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How To Write an Interview Essay

The aim of an interview is that through using people rather than books or articles, the writer can obtain a first-person viewpoint on a subject. The interview can be related to experiences in their life or may be related to a field in which they are an expert. Clearly these types of essays require a different form of planning and research. Typically, this includes the following steps:

Determine the subject on which the person is to be interviewed.
Identify the target interviewees, contact them, and ask for consent.
Personal details (name, occupation, or credentials where appropriate, age if relevant, location if relevant)
Primary question: The main focus of the work and some short main topic questions
Notes on exploring the respondent’s answers – i.e., reminder questions for the writer such as “why do you feel that way?”, “Can you explain that in more detail?”, “Why do you think some people disagree with you?”
Analyse the information / answers given by your interviewee.

Once you have followed these stages, you can draft / outline your interview essay in a more standard format:

Break up the responses into key themes or points that you will make.
Identify any other sources that you will use in your essay.
Give an approximate word count to each section.

Note that using closed questions requiring “yes/no” answers are effective for gathering factual information, however, more detailed responses can be achieved with open-ended questions starting, “how”, “why”, “talk to me about…” and similar. Using these questions also encourages you to ask more for more detail that will expand your essay and source information.

Analysing your interviews

When analysing your interview(s), the approach will depend on the focus of your interview. For example, if you have undertaken 2/3 interviews for considering an experience, you may wish to follow the narrative route. However, if you have undertaken only one interview on a specific topic in which your interviewee is an expert, you may look at content analysis. In both cases, however you should, as you look through the interview notes or transcriptions if you have these and ask yourself:

What reasons/ points/ perspectives did the interviewees give in support or opposition to the main topic
Are they positive or negative?
How does their responses compare to existing views?
How interesting or important are the responses given?
What is your own perspective of the views/reasons/responses given?

Once you have written down your initial analysis in order to structure your interview essay in a logical format you should then list the points/reasons given in the following way:

least to most important
positive first, then negative
negative, then positive
those you disagree with, those you agree with
those which are pretty typical, those which are unusual.

Writing your Interview Essay

Introduction.

Your introduction should commence with an indication of the key question asked. This can either be in the form of a comment from the interviewee or a description of the situation that led to the development of your main question.

In addition, you should clearly state the type of interview undertaken (survey, narrative etc.) so that the reader has a context for your work. The introduction should then provide an overview of the responses given, along with your own perspectives and thoughts on these (your thesis statement) before introducing the body of the essay through linking. For example, “having stated X, the work will now provide a more detailed overview of some of the key comments and their implications in relation to XX”.

The body text should follow the order of your points indicated above. Use only one paragraph per point structured by indicating the point made, why you agree/disagree and any other relevant subpoints made by the interviewee in regard to the first points.

The paragraph should conclude with a link to the next theme which leads to the next paragraph and demonstrates cohesion of thought and logical flow of reporting the interview analysis. Note: you can include quotations from the interview, but do not rely on these, they should only be used to reinforce a point of view, and where possible avoid the inclusion of slang or swearing unless it is vital to the point you are making.

Your conclusion should bring together all the perspectives given by the interviewee. It is, in effect, a synopsis of the work with your own conclusions included. It is useful to refer back to the main question and your thesis statement to indicate how the interviewee answered (or not) your question and what this means for your future views or action in regard to the topic. A strong conclusion is as vital as a strong introduction and should not introduce any new information but should be a precis of the overall essay.

Key Phrases for an Interview Essay

The main subject under discussion was…”

“The interviewee was very clear when discussing…”

“The interviewee was somewhat vague when asked about…”

“This raised the question of…”

“When asked about x, the interviewee stated/asserted/claimed/maintained/declared, believed/thought/.”

“From the perspectives given by the interviewee it seems that…”

How to Write an Interview Essay

Last Updated: March 11, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Diane Stubbs . Diane Stubbs is a Secondary English Teacher with over 22 years of experience teaching all high school grade levels and AP courses. She specializes in secondary education, classroom management, and educational technology. Diane earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Delaware and a Master of Education from Wesley College. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 462,039 times.

An interview essay is designed to give the reader a general impression of the interview subject and to present their thoughts on a select group of topics. It also offers the opportunity to develop deeper insights by analyzing the interviewee's responses within a larger context. Interview essays are a common school assignment, and provide useful skills for those interested in journalism, or just being good writers in general. There are several formats that fit into the category, but a good interview essay of whatever type can make the reader feel as though they were asking the questions.

Interviewing for an Essay

Step 1 Determine the purpose of your essay.

If your essay is to be a factual piece, you'll want to interview someone who has expertise in the subject matter you'll be addressing. If your paper is about a science topic, you'll want to interview a scientist in that field. If your paper is about a period of history, you'll want to interview either a historian or someone who's lived through that period of history.
If you plan to make your essay an opinion piece, you'll likely want to interview someone who has a strong opinion about the topic covered in your essay. Ideally, you want someone who can express opinions articulately, and who also has credentials in the area you plan to write about.
If your piece will have a narrow perspective, you'll need to interview only one or two people. If your piece will present a general consensus, you'll need to interview more people, probably with varying expertise and credentials.

Step 2 Research your interview subject(s) and draw up questions.

When available, read works about and works written by your subject, both in print and online. At the same time, research the topic associated with your subject. The more you know about both, the more intelligent questions you can ask.
Look for previous interviews your subject has given, as well. These will give you an idea of what questions the person has been asked before, so you can decide on appropriate subjects for your own questions, including questions that no one else has asked.
Questions that require "yes" or "no" answers are good for gathering specific factual information; open-ended "how," "why," and "tell me about" questions are great for gathering additional background material not found in your research.
Draw up a list of the questions you are prepared to ask. Have more questions ready than you will likely use, so that you can make adjustments as the interview takes place. (For instance, your subject may begin focusing on what you thought was a side topic, but turns out to be the key part of your interview.) Rank your questions in order of importance to make sure you ask your best ones, or list them all in the order you'd ask them and color-code the most important ones.

Choose a quiet place with few distractions for your interview site. A library, restaurant, or campus location if you're doing this for a college writing class would be suitable.
You may want to get the interviewee's consent to use their comments in your essay in writing, as well as permission to record those comments during the interview. By law, if you are recording an interview conducted over the phone, you must obtain written permission. [4] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source
It's helpful to have a backup interviewee in case the person you plan to interview can't make it.
Be on time at the place you've agreed to meet for the interview.

Using a recording device (with permission) is almost always advisable, as it permits you to save your note-taking for jotting down your insights on contexts, themes, how your subject approaches the questions, his/her comfort level, and so on.
Be patient and respectful as you ask your questions and wait for responses. Give the interviewee time to reflect, and you will likely be rewarded with more insightful answers. A few deeper responses are usually better than many superficial ones.
Immediately after the interview, write down your thoughts and impressions about the interview and interviewee. They may help you shape the essay.
Always end the interview by thanking the person.

Writing the Essay

Step 1 Decide what format your interview essay will have.

Narrative format. This form allows paraphrasing of some information the interviewee says, along with direct quotes for the material you most want to emphasize. This is the most likely format for a class assignment, and offers the most opportunity to add context and analysis.
Conversational format. This is a looser format than the formal writing style required for most essays. You can address the reader directly and use both first and second person. This format can be suitable for anything from class assignments to magazine articles.
Question-and-answer format. This form presents your questions to the interviewee, followed by the interviewee's responses. (That is, the text looks something like this: (Your Name): How long have you been in the circus? (Interviewee's Name): About 35 years.) These are always direct quotes, although you may insert explanatory material in parentheses and substitutions, such as a person's name in place of a personal pronoun, in brackets. This format is best suited for essays with only a single interviewee or a closely related group, such as spouses or the core cast of a TV show.
Informative format. This format usually interweaves the interview with research you've done on the subject, incorporating some of that research in the text to provide background and give it a little more color.

Read over your interview notes and listen to any audio / video recordings you have. Utilizing both whenever available will allow you to thoroughly consider both the highlights of the interview and the most significant themes to emerge from it. These, in turn, will inform your outline of what information your essay will cover and how it will appear. [9] X Research source
One possible outline could be an introduction that starts with an anecdote about the interviewee and then presents your thesis statement, several key points that support the main focus, and a conclusion that summarizes the information presented. Traditional school essays often utilize a five paragraph format (introduction, three supporting paragraphs, conclusion), and this can often work with interview essays as well.

If, however, the purpose of your essay is to use your interviewee's comments to support a position or examine a larger theme, your thesis will probably be a statement of that position or theme, with the interview / interviewee placed within that context. For instance: "John Doe's mixed feelings of pride and betrayal reflect those shared by many Vietnam veterans still with us."
Regardless of essay format, make your thesis clear and concise, and be sure that the remainder of your essay refers back to it. See How to Write a Thesis Statement for more advice.

Interviews can sometimes produce a good deal of repetitive answers (even with high-quality questions), so you may need to trim repetitions and unnecessary elements from the body of your essay. Make sure that whatever material you do keep remains true to both the spirit of the interview and the overarching focus of your essay. [10] X Research source
A handout from the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina (available at http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/oral-history/ ) provides a wealth of valuable materials on interview essays. It includes, for instance, examples of how to utilize the same interview materials in a transcription (question-and-answer format), a presentation of individual experiences (quotations and paraphrases), and the placing of the interview / interviewee in a larger context (paraphrasing and quotations with ample explanation).

Reading over the essay yourself is a good start, but it is always wise to have another set of eyes look it over as well. Another reader is likely to catch errors, repetitions, and unclear sections that you have glossed over. [12] X Research source
Go back to your original interview notes, recordings, and transcripts, and make sure that your essay continues to reflect the actual interview. Layers of editing and revising can sometimes cause the essay to drift away from the original source and intent. You may even want to let the interviewee read it over to ensure that it captures their voice. [13] X Research source

Any materials you used for research, information about the interviewee, or context for the essay itself should be referenced in the approved citation format for your essay.
Make sure one more time that any direct quotations from your source are placed in quotation marks, and any paraphrasing is done without quotation marks. Don't put words in your subject's mouth, and respect the words that do emerge from it.

What Are The Dos And Don’ts Of a Journalistic Interview?

Expert Q&A

After the interview, send the interviewee a written thank-you note expressing your appreciation for their time. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
If the person you're interviewing is busy or elderly, you may want to plan for more than one interview session. Observe the interviewee for signs of impatience or fatigue. Conduct multiple, shorter sessions if necessary. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

If you plan to interview someone over the telephone, permission to record the conversation is required by law. Thanks Helpful 15 Not Helpful 3

↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/oral-history/
↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/interview-paper
↑ http://www.whatkidscando.org/featurestories/2007/maine_students/tip_sheets/FIRST-PERSON%20ESSAYS%20TIP%20SHEET.pdf
↑ http://www.brighthubeducation.com/help-with-writing/97515-how-to-write-an-interview-essay/
↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/proofreading_suggestions.html

About This Article

To write an essay from an interview, you’ll first have to decide on the format the essay will take, as this will determine the structure and what you write. The most common form is the narrative format, in which you use direct quotes and paraphrase your subject to add context and detail, or you can write in a more conversational tone, or even in a directly transcribed question-and-answer form. Once you decide on format, plan an outline by forming a central thesis, which will be the central statement your essay is making. Add onto the outline by drafting supporting evidence directly from the interview and from other sources, like books, newspaper articles, other essays, anything else to support your point. Write and finish the essay by combining information from the interview and other sources with your own explanations and words. To learn about how to conduct the interview to get enough information to write about and how to finish the writing process, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Types of Interviews in Research and Methods

There are more types of interviews than most people think. An interview is generally a qualitative research technique that involves asking open-ended questions to converse with respondents and collect elicit data about a subject.

The interviewer, in most cases, is the subject matter expert who intends to understand respondent opinions in a well-planned and executed series of star questions and answers .

Interviews are similar to focus groups and surveys for garnering information from the target market but are entirely different in their operation – focus groups are restricted to a small group of 6-10 individuals, whereas surveys are quantitative.

Interviews are conducted with a sample from a population, and the key characteristic they exhibit is their conversational tone.

LEARN ABOUT: telephone survey

Content Index

What is An Interview?

Fundamental types of interviews in research, other types of interviews.

Methods of Research Interviews

What to Avoid in Different Types of Interviews

Interview-Related Questions

An interview is a way to get information from a person by asking questions and hearing their answers.

An interview is a question-and-answer session where one person asks questions, and the other person answers those questions. It can be a one-on-one, two-way conversation, or there can be more than one interviewer and more than one participant.

The interview is the most important part of the whole selection bias process. It is used to decide if a person should be interviewed further, hired, or taken out of consideration. It is the main way to learn more about applicants and the basis for judging their job-related knowledge, research skills , and abilities.

A researcher has to conduct interviews with a group of participants at a juncture in the research where information can only be obtained by meeting and personally connecting with a section of their target audience. Interviews offer the researchers a platform to prompt their participants and obtain inputs in the desired detail. There are three fundamental types of interviews in research:

1. Structured Interviews:

Structured interviews are defined as research tools that could be more flexible in their operations are allow more or no scope of prompting the participants to obtain and analyze results. It is thus also known as a standardized interview and is significantly quantitative in its approach.

Questions in this interview are pre-decided according to the required detail of information. This can be used in a focus group interview and an in-person interview.

These interviews are excessively used in survey research with the intention of maintaining uniformity throughout all the interview sessions.

LEARN ABOUT: Research Process Steps

They can be closed-ended and open-ended – according to the type of target population. Closed-ended questions can be included to understand user preferences from a collection of answer options. In contrast, open-ended ones can be included to gain details about a particular section in the interview.

Example of a structured interview question:

Here’s an example of a structured question for a job interview for a customer service job:

Can you talk about what it was like to work in customer service?
How do you deal with an angry or upset customer?
How do you ensure that the information you give customers is correct?
Tell us about when you went out of your way to help a customer.
How do you handle a lot of customers or tasks at once?
Can you talk about how you’ve used software or tools for customer service?
How do you set priorities and use your time well while giving good customer service?
Can you tell us about when you had to get a customer to calm down?
How do you deal with a customer who wants something that goes against your company’s rules?
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a hard customer or coworker.

Advantages of structured interviews:

It focuses on the accuracy of different responses, due to which extremely organized data can be collected. Different respondents have different types of answers to the same structure of questions – answers obtained can be collectively analyzed.
They can be used to get in touch with a large sample of the target population.
The interview procedure is made easy due to the standardization offered by it.
Replication across multiple samples becomes easy due to the same structure of the interview.
As the scope of detail is already considered while designing the interview questions, better information can be obtained. The researcher can analyze the research problem comprehensively by asking accurate research questions .
Since the structure of the interview is fixed, it often generates reliable results and is quick to execute.
The relationship between the researcher and the respondent is not formal, due to which the researcher can clearly understand the margin of error in case the respondent either degree to be a part of the survey or is just not interested in providing the right information.

Disadvantages of structured interviews:

The limited scope of assessment of obtained results.
The accuracy of information overpowers the detail of information.
Respondents are forced to select from the provided answer options.
The researcher is expected to always adhere to the list of decided questions, irrespective of how interesting the conversation is turning out to be with the participants.
A significant amount of time is required for a structured interview.

Learn more: Market Research

2. Semi-Structured Types of Interviews:

Semi-structured interviews offer a considerable amount of leeway to the researcher to probe the respondents, along with maintaining a basic interview structure. Even if it is a guided conversation between researchers and interviewees – appreciable flexibility is offered to the researchers. A researcher can be assured that multiple interview rounds will not be required in the presence of structure in this type of research interview.

Keeping the structure in mind, the researcher can follow any idea or take creative advantage of the entire interview. Additional respondent probing is always necessary to garner information for a research study. The best application of semi-structured interviews is when the researcher doesn’t have time to conduct research and requires detailed information about the topic.

Example of a semi-structured interview question:

Here’s an example of a semi-structured marketing job interviews question:

Can you tell us about the marketing work you’ve done?
What do you think are the most important parts of a marketing campaign that works?
Tell me about a campaign you worked on that you’re very proud of.
How do you do research on the market and look at data to help you make marketing decisions?
Can you tell us about a time when you had to change your marketing plan because of something that didn’t go as planned?
How do you figure out if a marketing campaign worked?
Can you talk about how you’ve used social media to market?
How do you ensure your marketing message gets through to the people you want to hear it?
Can you tell us about a time when you had to run a marketing campaign on a small budget?
How do you keep up with changes and trends in marketing?

Advantages of semi-structured interviews:

Questions from semi-structured interview questions are prepared before the scheduled interview, giving the researcher time to prepare and analyze the questions.
It is flexible to an extent while maintaining the research guidelines.
Unlike a structured interview, researchers can express the interview questions in the preferred format.
Reliable qualitative data can be collected via these interviews.
The flexible structure of the interview.

Learn more: Quantitative Data

Disadvantages of semi-structured interviews:

Participants may question the reliability factor of these interviews due to the flexibility offered.
Comparing two different answers becomes difficult as the guideline for conducting interviews is not entirely followed. No two questions will have the exact same structure, and the result will be an inability to compare are infer results.

3. Unstructured Interviews:

Also called in-depth interviews , unstructured interviews are usually described as conversations held with a purpose in mind – to gather data about the research study. These interviews have the least number of questions as they lean more towards a normal conversation but with an underlying subject.

The main objective of most researchers using unstructured interviews is to build a bond with the respondents, due to which there is a high chance that the respondents will be 100% truthful with their answers. There are no guidelines for the researchers to follow. So they can approach the participants ethically to gain as much information as possible about their research topic.

Since there are no guidelines for these interviews, a researcher is expected to keep their approach in check so that the respondents do not sway away from the main research motive.

For a researcher to obtain the desired outcome, he/she must keep the following factors in mind:

The intent of the interview.
The interview should primarily take into consideration the participant’s interests and skills.
All the conversations should be conducted within the permissible limits of research, and the researcher should try and stick by these limits.
The researcher’s skills and knowledge should match the interview’s purpose.
Researchers should understand the dos and don’ts of it.

Example of an unstructured interview question:

Here’s an example of a question asked in an unstructured interview:

Can you tell me about when you had to deal with something hard and how you did it?
What are some of the things you’re most proud of, and what did you learn from them?
How do you deal with ambiguity or not knowing what to do at work?
Can you describe how you lead and how you get your team going?
Tell me about a time when you had to take a chance and how it turned out.
What do you think are the most important qualities for success in this role?
How do you deal with setbacks or failures, and what do you learn from them?
Can you tell me about a time when you had to solve a problem by thinking outside the box?
What do you think makes you different from the other people who want this job?
Can you tell me about a time when you had to make a hard choice and how you made that choice?

Advantages of Unstructured Interviews:

Due to this type of interview’s informal nature, it becomes extremely easy for researchers to try and develop a friendly rapport with the participants. This leads to gaining insights in extreme detail without much conscious effort.
The participants can clarify all their doubts about the questions, and the researcher can take each opportunity to explain his/her intention for better answers.
There are no questions that the researcher has to abide by, and this usually increases the flexibility of the entire research process.

Disadvantages of Unstructured Interviews:

Researchers take time to execute these interviews because there is no structure to the interview process.
The absence of a standardized set of questions and guidelines indicates that its reliability of it is questionable.
The ethics involved in these interviews are often considered borderline upsetting.

Learn more: Qualitative Market Research & Qualitative Data Collection

Besides the 3 basic interview types, we have already mentioned there are more. Here are some other interview types that are commonly used in a job interview:

Behavioral Interview

During this type of interview, candidates are asked to give specific examples of how they have acted in the past. The idea behind this kind of interview is that what someone did in the past can be a sign of how they will act in the future. And by this interview, the company can also understand the interviewee’s behavior through body language.

Panel Interview

During a panel interview, three or more interviewers usually ask questions and evaluate the candidate’s answers as a group. This is a good way to get a full picture of a candidate’s skills and suitability for the job.

Group Types of Interviews

Multiple people are interviewed at the same time in group interviews. This form of interview often focus groups that are utilized on entry-level positions or employment in customer service to examine how well candidates get along with others and function as a team.

Case Interview

During a case interview, candidates are given a business problem or scenario and asked to think about how to solve it. In the consulting and finance fields, this kind of interview is common.

Technical Interview

A candidate’s technical skills and knowledge are tested during a technical interview, usually in fields like engineering or software development. Most of the time, candidates are asked to solve problems or complete technical tasks.

Stress Interview

During a stress interview, candidates are put under pressure or asked difficult or confrontational questions on purpose to see how they react in stressful situations. This kind of interview is used to see how well a candidate can deal with stress and hard situations.

Methods of Research Interviews:

There are four methods to conduct research interviews, each of which is peculiar in its application and can be used according to the research study requirement.

Personal Interviews:

Personal interviews are one of the most used types of interviews, where the questions are asked personally directly to the respondent as a form of an individual interview. One of the many in-person interviews is a lunch interview, which is frequently better suited for casual inquiries and discussions.

For this, a researcher can have a guide to online surveys to take note of the answers. A researcher can design his/her survey in such a way that they take notes of the comments or points of view that stands out from the interviewee. It can be a one-on-one interview as well.

Higher response rate.
When the interviewees and respondents are face-to-face, there is a way to adapt the questions if this is not understood.
More complete answers can be obtained if there is doubt on both sides or a remarkable piece of information is detected.
The researcher has an opportunity to detect and analyze the interviewee’s body language at the time of asking the questions and taking notes about it.

Disadvantages:

They are time-consuming and extremely expensive.
They can generate distrust on the part of the interviewee since they may be self-conscious and not answer truthfully.
Contacting the interviewees can be a real headache, either scheduling an appointment in workplaces or going from house to house and not finding anyone.
Therefore, many interviews are conducted in public places like shopping centers or parks. Even consumer studies take advantage of these sites to conduct interviews or surveys and give incentives, gifts, and coupons. In short, There are great opportunities for online research in shopping centers.
Among the advantages of conducting such types of interviews is that the respondents will have more fresh information if the interview is conducted in the context and with the appropriate stimuli so that researchers can have data from their experience at the scene of the events immediately and first hand. The interviewer can use an online survey through a mobile device that will undoubtedly facilitate the entire process.

Telephonic Type of Interviews:

Phonic interviews are widely used and easily combined with online surveys to conduct research effectively.

Advantages:

To find the interviewees, it is enough to have their phone numbers on hand.
They are usually lower cost.
The information is collected quickly.
Having a personal contact can also clarify doubts or give more details of the questions.
Many times researchers observe that people do not answer phone calls because it is an unknown number for the respondent or simply already changed their place of residence and they cannot locate it, which causes a bias in the interview.
Researchers also face that they simply do not want to answer and resort to pretexts such as they are busy to answer, they are sick, they do not have the authority to answer the questions asked, they have no interest in answering, or they are afraid of putting their security at risk.
One of the aspects that should be taken care of in these types of interviews is the kindness with which the interviewers address the respondents in order to get them to cooperate more easily with their answers. Good communication is vital for the generation of better answers.

Email or Web Page Types of Interviews:

Online research is growing more and more because consumers are migrating to a more virtual world, and it is best for each researcher to adapt to this change.

The increase in people with Internet access has made it popular that interviews via email or web page stand out among the types of interviews most used today. For this nothing better than an online survey.

More and more consumers are turning to online shopping, which is why they are a great niche to be able to carry out an interview that will generate information for the correct decision-making.

Advantages of email surveys:

Speed in obtaining data
The respondents respond according to their time, when they want, and where they decide.
Online surveys can be mixed with other research methods or using some of the previous interview models. They are tools that can perfectly complement and pay for the project.
A researcher can use a variety of questions and logic to create graphs and reports immediately.

Disadvantages of email survey:

Low response rates
Limited access to certain populations
Potential for spam filters
Lack of personal touch

Try not to do any of the following things when you’re in an interview:

Don’t blame your previous managers, coworkers, or companies. This will make a bad impression on the interviewer and show that you are not accountable.
Do not go to the interview without knowing anything about the company you are interviewing for. Interviewers will think you don’t care about learning about the company if you don’t know anything.
Don’t fidget with things because that shows you lack self-confidence and focus.
Stop checking the time because it shows that you have something more important to do and that you don’t give the interview much importance.

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Interviews are conversations between an investigator (interviewer) and a respondent (‘interviewees’, ‘informants’ or ‘sources’) in which questions are asked in order to obtain information.

Interviews seek to collect data and narrative information in order to better understand the respondent’s unique perspectives, opinions, and world-views. Interviewing is a fundamental methodology for both quantitative and qualitative social research and evaluation.

For Interviews with Individuals see:

A convergent interview is a type of interview intended to explore issues widely through a combination of unstructured interviews and a maximum diversity sample.

Key informant interviews involve interviewing people who have particularly informed perspectives on an aspect of the program being evaluated.

An in-depth interview is a type of interview with an individual that aims to collect detailed information beyond initial and surface-level answers.

For Interviews with Groups see:

A focus group is a type of group interview designed to explore peoples attitudes.

Types of interviews

There are many different types of interview approaches and techniques, Generally speaking, all interviews fall into one of three categories: structured , semi-structured , and depth/unstructured interviews .

Structured interviews are most typically used in quantitative investigations, including survey research. In structured interviews, the interviewer presents the interviewee with a standardized set of questions, often in questionnaire form. These questions usually have pre-set answers from which the interviewee selects, rather than ‘open-ended’ questions. Each individual interview features the same set of questions, asked in a fixed order. All questions included in the research design are asked in each interview session. Structured interview questions are the most common type used in surveying interviewing.
Semi-structured interviews center around a mixed framework of general themes and pre-established questions, which can be adapted in the context of individual sessions. The interviewers is thus free to leave certain questions out, mix the order of questions, or ask certain standard questions in different ways depending on context. Semi-structured interviews also rely on a combination of both open and closed questions.
Unstructured interviews – also known as ‘informal’ or ‘conversational’ interviews – are wholly qualitative, and include only topic areas and themes rather than standard questions. Unstructured interviews take the form of natural conversation between two or more people, and allow the interviewer to pursue follow-up questions or new lines of discussion as they see fit. Closed questions are avoided, and the interviewee is often asked to identify the information they feel is most important for the discussion.

In practice, these three approaches are routinely combined. Qualitative exploratory interviewing, for instance, can prove a good compliment to more structured interviewing using closed questions later in an evaluation.

A large number of more specific interviewing techniques fall under this broad taxonomy; including telephone interviews, computer-assisted interviewing, elite interviewing, life histories, household surveys and Key Informant Interviews which are interviews with people who have particularly informed perspectives on the project. (Group interviews, including focus groups , and survey research require sufficiently specialized methodological approaches as to be considered separate from general interview methodology, although many of the fundamentals overlap.)

Whatever approach the investigator selects, the interviewing processes itself follows several general stages:

First, investigators design and plan the study, determining both generalized approach (structured, semi-structured, unstructured), specific technique, the research questions to be asked, and any practical, conceptual and ethical external factors to consider. Interviewers also undertake any specialized training/preparations required.
Second, the interviews themselves are conducted, and their results are subsequently transcribed. (Be warned that the transcription process can take as long, if not longer, than the interviewing itself.)
Third, the results of the interviews are analyses and interpreted using the investigator’s chosen option of analysis. During this stage, verification of the data and findings collected from the interviews is also required.
Fourth, results are reported.

Conducting the interview itself is as much ‘art’ as ‘science’, and requires practice. That said, the following steps provide a useful guide:

Opening up the interview : Begin with informal introductions and small talk, then properly introduce the investigation, interview format and structure to the participants, allowing the opportunity for them to withdraw their consent prior to its start.
Administer questions : Ask the questions of the interviewee, while recording their answers by hand, audio recorder, or video tape. Pay close attention to both the answers being recorded and, especially for semi- and unstructured interviews, the emerging themes, perspectives, opinions, and underlying logic which is being elicited in the respondent’s answers – all of these should be noted and if appropriate, probed further. Inconsistencies and diversionary answers should also be watched out for. Respondents should always be given the space during discussions to form their own answers. The investigator should also keep an eye on the time throughout.
Closing down the interview : After all questions have been asked, the investigator should ask the respondent their feelings on the interview, and whether they have anything further to add. It is particularly useful to summarise the key points of the discussion with the respondent while they are still there. End by thanking the respondent for their time. If possible, review notes immediately after and expand on any annotations made during the interview while it is still ‘fresh’ in your mind.

Keep in mind that specific interview techniques will require important variations of this approach – a telephone interview is conducted very differently than a one-to-one interview, as is a focus group. See relevant options entries for more on each.

Ethics: Finally, it is the investigator’s duty to ensure that they adhere to proper ethical interviewing standards. First, interviews should only be conducted with informed consent – permission should be sought in a transparent way from interviewees, and granted, prior to the interview. This step should be conducted alongside risk assessments to identify potential risks to interviews and address them in the content process. Second, rights to confidentiality and anonymity must be offered where appropriate – keep in mind that many governments have strict laws about both confidentiality and circumstances where important/dangerous information cannot be kept confidential (for example, in instances of severe domestic or child abuse, etc.) Third, fair return for assistance should be considered, whether in terms of financial or material compensation. (compensation is itself a tricky ethical issue, and policies may differ by organization and context, but should be addressed and discussed prior to the start of the interview process.) Finally, be aware that interviewing vulnerable groups – including children, disabled people, elderly people, victims of violence, etc – bring with it a range of unique ethical considerations. An example of ethical guidelines for social research prepared by professional research associations to govern their professions may serve as a useful starting point. See, for example, The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Framework for Social Ethics .

This following example of a semi-structured interview guide was prepared for the World Health Organization's (WHO) training package on substance use, sexual and reproductive health as part of the M&E component of a street children project.

Interview guide with fields for details of the interviewer, interviewee, place and date at the top followed a set of interview questionsquestions

(WHO 2002 p.31)

Advice for choosing this method

In general, interviews have the following strengths :

Depth and context of data – interviews elicit insights and perspective’s into people’s though-processes and rationales behind a particular issue, and are able to articulate their ‘story’ in their own words.
Access – Interviews, particularly one-to-one interviews, can permit the investigator to access individuals unwilling or unable to participate in focus groups or surveys.

And the following weaknesses :

Interviews are time-consuming – in terms of identifying subjects, negotiating access, logistics, direct interviewing time, and lengthy transcriptions.
Less-structured interview data is difficult to analyze.
‘Interviewer effect’ – in which the interviewer’s presence and behavior bias the interviewee’s response – is a consistent challenge to avoid, as are unintended transgressions of individual’s comfort-zones and levels of privacy.
People’s narrative explanations do not always conform to the reality of a situation, which requires consideration of reliability and triangulation.
Keep in mind that a translator may be required to assist in both the interview and transcription if the investigator does not speak the same language as the interviewee – keep in mind that this requires additional coordination between the translator and interviewer to ensure all questions are delivered as intended. Interviewers should also be involved in the post-interview review and analysis.
While most interviews outside group settings include only one interviewer, it can often be useful to consider including a second interviewer. Ideally, this second interviewer can also serve as the translator if needed, and can focus on note-taking while the first interviewer focuses on questions. Can also provide feedback and perspective after the interview is complete, and interviews can often benefit from two people with different perspectives asking different types of questions.

Advice for using this method

Interviewing is a unique and somewhat intuitive skill which requires practice. The following are a few, but by no means all, guidance on how to ask good questions.

On question design:

Good questions should be clear, specific, unambiguous, and directly related to the overarching research question. They should ideally concern one issue or topic at a time, and be worded in clear, jargon and technical-free language. They should ask only subjects respondents can be reasonably expected to possess information on.
Questions should be neutral in tone.
Investigators must always remain aware of the danger of ‘leading questions’. Leading questions are those which encourage the respondent to answer in a particular way, thus biasing your resulting answer and potentially discrediting your research. (wouldn’t you agree that this project should be recognisedas a success?) To avoid asking leading questions – which can often be difficult to spot yourself – ask a colleague to review your questions for you.
Similarly, investigators should avoid questions which presume information (i.e. asking ‘what age did you graduate primary school’ presumes the respondent attended primary school), questions which contain subtle or explicit value judgments (i.e. asking ‘at what age were you forced to marry?’ to someone who was not forced to marry), and of course, any questions which may be considered rude, offensive, or insensitive (determining which will always depend on context, culture, and the individual).
Place questions in a logical order – for instance, beginning with an interesting and nonthreatening question which all respondents may be expected to answer confidently. (Conversely, do not open your interviewing with your most challenging or potentially embarrassing questions – rather, sensitively introduce them later in the interview after rapport has been established.)
If at all possible, pilot-test your questions on a small group from your final sample to identify potential issues, and expect to redraft them multiple times before finalizing the list.

On interviewing:

Time-management and scheduling is critical. Arrive at every interview with an understanding of the timing involved in the entire interview and each individual question. Keep a discrete eye on the time to ensure you have enough time remaining. If possible, leave extra time to begin and end (in case of late arrivals and protracted ending small-talk). If possible, remind respondents a day or two before the scheduled interview.
Pay close attention to your own body-language: maintain appropriate levels of eye contact. Also notice non-verbal signs in your respondents, and note them. Bring all relevant materials with you – typically, a notebook, writing tools, and any recording equipment (audio or video) needed. Ensure that your recording option (note-taking, taping) is workable in the context in which you will be doing the interview. Especially for long interviews get some water and maybe even food/ candies for you and your subject.
Wait to establish rapport, when the interviewee appears most comfortable, before asking sensitive questions.
Remain aware for potentially evasive, confused, or intentionally misleading/distracting response, and probe (gently) for clarification if necessary.
It is important to allow interviewees the space to express themselves the way they feel most comfortable, in order to elicit the deepest and most honest responses. Be very careful to give these interviewees enough time to respond, and learn to be comfortable with pauses and silence.
Always thank the respondent at the end of the interview.
Immediately following the interview, take time to retire to a quiet place and expand or complete any notes you made during the session – your conversation will never be fresher in your mind.
Continue to practice and refine your interviewing techniques.

This paper from the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) explains structured interview techniques for GAO evaluators and how they should be incorporated when appropriate.

This short guide defines in-depth interviews, explains their advantages and disadvantages and the steps involved in their application.

This webpage outlines the circumstances in which qualitative interview techniques are best applied for the purpose of evaluation.

Kvale, S. (1996) Interviews An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing London: Sage Publications.
Denscombe, M. (1998) The Good Research Guide for Small-Scale Social Research Projects, Buckingham and Philadelphia: Th…
Mertens, D and Ginsberg, P, eds. (2009) Handbook of Social Research Ethics. London: Sage Publications

Values Clarification Interviews involve interviewing key informants and intended beneficiaries to identify what they value.

Sewell, M. “The Use of Qualitative Interviews in Evaluation”, University of Arizona, Online

World Health Organization (WHO). (2002) Working with street children : monitoring and evaluation of a street children project : a training package on substance abuse, sexual and reproductive health, including HIV/AIDS and STD . Online at www.unodc.org/pdf/youthnet/who_street_children_evaluation.PDF

Expand to view all resources related to 'Interviews'

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'Interviews' is referenced in:

Qualitative impact assessment protocol
Week 34: Alternatives to transcribing interviews
Week 5: The top ten developments in qualitative evaluation over the last decade – part 2
Week 8: Guest blog: Innovation in development evaluation

Framework/Guide

Rainbow Framework : Collect and/ or retrieve data
Concept mapping
Key informant interviews
Personal stories
RAPID outcomes assessment
Footprint evaluation
Evaluating policy influence and advocacy
Evaluating the performance of an organisation
Sustained and Emerging Impacts Evaluation (SEIE)

Frequently asked questions

What are the four main types of interviews.

The four most common types of interviews are:

Structured interviews : The questions are predetermined in both topic and order.
Semi-structured interviews : A few questions are predetermined, but other questions aren’t planned.
Unstructured interviews : None of the questions are predetermined.
Focus group interviews : The questions are presented to a group instead of one individual.

Frequently asked questions: Methodology

Quantitative observations involve measuring or counting something and expressing the result in numerical form, while qualitative observations involve describing something in non-numerical terms, such as its appearance, texture, or color.

To make quantitative observations , you need to use instruments that are capable of measuring the quantity you want to observe. For example, you might use a ruler to measure the length of an object or a thermometer to measure its temperature.

Scope of research is determined at the beginning of your research process , prior to the data collection stage. Sometimes called “scope of study,” your scope delineates what will and will not be covered in your project. It helps you focus your work and your time, ensuring that you’ll be able to achieve your goals and outcomes.

Defining a scope can be very useful in any research project, from a research proposal to a thesis or dissertation . A scope is needed for all types of research: quantitative , qualitative , and mixed methods .

To define your scope of research, consider the following:

Budget constraints or any specifics of grant funding
Your proposed timeline and duration
Specifics about your population of study, your proposed sample size , and the research methodology you’ll pursue
Any inclusion and exclusion criteria
Any anticipated control , extraneous , or confounding variables that could bias your research if not accounted for properly.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria are predominantly used in non-probability sampling . In purposive sampling and snowball sampling , restrictions apply as to who can be included in the sample .

Inclusion and exclusion criteria are typically presented and discussed in the methodology section of your thesis or dissertation .

The purpose of theory-testing mode is to find evidence in order to disprove, refine, or support a theory. As such, generalisability is not the aim of theory-testing mode.

Due to this, the priority of researchers in theory-testing mode is to eliminate alternative causes for relationships between variables . In other words, they prioritise internal validity over external validity , including ecological validity .

Convergent validity shows how much a measure of one construct aligns with other measures of the same or related constructs .

On the other hand, concurrent validity is about how a measure matches up to some known criterion or gold standard, which can be another measure.

Although both types of validity are established by calculating the association or correlation between a test score and another variable , they represent distinct validation methods.

Validity tells you how accurately a method measures what it was designed to measure. There are 4 main types of validity :

Construct validity : Does the test measure the construct it was designed to measure?
Face validity : Does the test appear to be suitable for its objectives ?
Content validity : Does the test cover all relevant parts of the construct it aims to measure.
Criterion validity : Do the results accurately measure the concrete outcome they are designed to measure?

Criterion validity evaluates how well a test measures the outcome it was designed to measure. An outcome can be, for example, the onset of a disease.

Criterion validity consists of two subtypes depending on the time at which the two measures (the criterion and your test) are obtained:

Concurrent validity is a validation strategy where the the scores of a test and the criterion are obtained at the same time
Predictive validity is a validation strategy where the criterion variables are measured after the scores of the test

Attrition refers to participants leaving a study. It always happens to some extent – for example, in randomised control trials for medical research.

Differential attrition occurs when attrition or dropout rates differ systematically between the intervention and the control group . As a result, the characteristics of the participants who drop out differ from the characteristics of those who stay in the study. Because of this, study results may be biased .

Criterion validity and construct validity are both types of measurement validity . In other words, they both show you how accurately a method measures something.

While construct validity is the degree to which a test or other measurement method measures what it claims to measure, criterion validity is the degree to which a test can predictively (in the future) or concurrently (in the present) measure something.

Construct validity is often considered the overarching type of measurement validity . You need to have face validity , content validity , and criterion validity in order to achieve construct validity.

Convergent validity and discriminant validity are both subtypes of construct validity . Together, they help you evaluate whether a test measures the concept it was designed to measure.

Convergent validity indicates whether a test that is designed to measure a particular construct correlates with other tests that assess the same or similar construct.
Discriminant validity indicates whether two tests that should not be highly related to each other are indeed not related. This type of validity is also called divergent validity .

You need to assess both in order to demonstrate construct validity. Neither one alone is sufficient for establishing construct validity.

Face validity and content validity are similar in that they both evaluate how suitable the content of a test is. The difference is that face validity is subjective, and assesses content at surface level.

When a test has strong face validity, anyone would agree that the test’s questions appear to measure what they are intended to measure.

For example, looking at a 4th grade math test consisting of problems in which students have to add and multiply, most people would agree that it has strong face validity (i.e., it looks like a math test).

On the other hand, content validity evaluates how well a test represents all the aspects of a topic. Assessing content validity is more systematic and relies on expert evaluation. of each question, analysing whether each one covers the aspects that the test was designed to cover.

A 4th grade math test would have high content validity if it covered all the skills taught in that grade. Experts(in this case, math teachers), would have to evaluate the content validity by comparing the test to the learning objectives.

Content validity shows you how accurately a test or other measurement method taps into the various aspects of the specific construct you are researching.

In other words, it helps you answer the question: “does the test measure all aspects of the construct I want to measure?” If it does, then the test has high content validity.

The higher the content validity, the more accurate the measurement of the construct.

If the test fails to include parts of the construct, or irrelevant parts are included, the validity of the instrument is threatened, which brings your results into question.

Construct validity refers to how well a test measures the concept (or construct) it was designed to measure. Assessing construct validity is especially important when you’re researching concepts that can’t be quantified and/or are intangible, like introversion. To ensure construct validity your test should be based on known indicators of introversion ( operationalisation ).

On the other hand, content validity assesses how well the test represents all aspects of the construct. If some aspects are missing or irrelevant parts are included, the test has low content validity.

Discriminant validity indicates whether two tests that should not be highly related to each other are indeed not related

Construct validity has convergent and discriminant subtypes. They assist determine if a test measures the intended notion.

The reproducibility and replicability of a study can be ensured by writing a transparent, detailed method section and using clear, unambiguous language.

Reproducibility and replicability are related terms.

A successful reproduction shows that the data analyses were conducted in a fair and honest manner.
A successful replication shows that the reliability of the results is high.
Reproducing research entails reanalysing the existing data in the same manner.
Replicating (or repeating ) the research entails reconducting the entire analysis, including the collection of new data .

Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling method . Unlike probability sampling (which involves some form of random selection ), the initial individuals selected to be studied are the ones who recruit new participants.

Because not every member of the target population has an equal chance of being recruited into the sample, selection in snowball sampling is non-random.

Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling method , where there is not an equal chance for every member of the population to be included in the sample .

This means that you cannot use inferential statistics and make generalisations – often the goal of quantitative research . As such, a snowball sample is not representative of the target population, and is usually a better fit for qualitative research .

Snowball sampling relies on the use of referrals. Here, the researcher recruits one or more initial participants, who then recruit the next ones.

Participants share similar characteristics and/or know each other. Because of this, not every member of the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample, giving rise to sampling bias .

Snowball sampling is best used in the following cases:

If there is no sampling frame available (e.g., people with a rare disease)
If the population of interest is hard to access or locate (e.g., people experiencing homelessness)
If the research focuses on a sensitive topic (e.g., extra-marital affairs)

Stratified sampling and quota sampling both involve dividing the population into subgroups and selecting units from each subgroup. The purpose in both cases is to select a representative sample and/or to allow comparisons between subgroups.

The main difference is that in stratified sampling, you draw a random sample from each subgroup ( probability sampling ). In quota sampling you select a predetermined number or proportion of units, in a non-random manner ( non-probability sampling ).

Random sampling or probability sampling is based on random selection. This means that each unit has an equal chance (i.e., equal probability) of being included in the sample.

On the other hand, convenience sampling involves stopping people at random, which means that not everyone has an equal chance of being selected depending on the place, time, or day you are collecting your data.

Convenience sampling and quota sampling are both non-probability sampling methods. They both use non-random criteria like availability, geographical proximity, or expert knowledge to recruit study participants.

However, in convenience sampling, you continue to sample units or cases until you reach the required sample size.

In quota sampling, you first need to divide your population of interest into subgroups (strata) and estimate their proportions (quota) in the population. Then you can start your data collection , using convenience sampling to recruit participants, until the proportions in each subgroup coincide with the estimated proportions in the population.

A sampling frame is a list of every member in the entire population . It is important that the sampling frame is as complete as possible, so that your sample accurately reflects your population.

Stratified and cluster sampling may look similar, but bear in mind that groups created in cluster sampling are heterogeneous , so the individual characteristics in the cluster vary. In contrast, groups created in stratified sampling are homogeneous , as units share characteristics.

Relatedly, in cluster sampling you randomly select entire groups and include all units of each group in your sample. However, in stratified sampling, you select some units of all groups and include them in your sample. In this way, both methods can ensure that your sample is representative of the target population .

When your population is large in size, geographically dispersed, or difficult to contact, it’s necessary to use a sampling method .

This allows you to gather information from a smaller part of the population, i.e. the sample, and make accurate statements by using statistical analysis. A few sampling methods include simple random sampling , convenience sampling , and snowball sampling .

The two main types of social desirability bias are:

Self-deceptive enhancement (self-deception): The tendency to see oneself in a favorable light without realizing it.
Impression managemen t (other-deception): The tendency to inflate one’s abilities or achievement in order to make a good impression on other people.

Response bias refers to conditions or factors that take place during the process of responding to surveys, affecting the responses. One type of response bias is social desirability bias .

Demand characteristics are aspects of experiments that may give away the research objective to participants. Social desirability bias occurs when participants automatically try to respond in ways that make them seem likeable in a study, even if it means misrepresenting how they truly feel.

Participants may use demand characteristics to infer social norms or experimenter expectancies and act in socially desirable ways, so you should try to control for demand characteristics wherever possible.

A systematic review is secondary research because it uses existing research. You don’t collect new data yourself.

Ethical considerations in research are a set of principles that guide your research designs and practices. These principles include voluntary participation, informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, potential for harm, and results communication.

Scientists and researchers must always adhere to a certain code of conduct when collecting data from others .

These considerations protect the rights of research participants, enhance research validity , and maintain scientific integrity.

Research ethics matter for scientific integrity, human rights and dignity, and collaboration between science and society. These principles make sure that participation in studies is voluntary, informed, and safe.

Research misconduct means making up or falsifying data, manipulating data analyses, or misrepresenting results in research reports. It’s a form of academic fraud.

These actions are committed intentionally and can have serious consequences; research misconduct is not a simple mistake or a point of disagreement but a serious ethical failure.

Anonymity means you don’t know who the participants are, while confidentiality means you know who they are but remove identifying information from your research report. Both are important ethical considerations .

You can only guarantee anonymity by not collecting any personally identifying information – for example, names, phone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses, physical characteristics, photos, or videos.

You can keep data confidential by using aggregate information in your research report, so that you only refer to groups of participants rather than individuals.

Peer review is a process of evaluating submissions to an academic journal. Utilising rigorous criteria, a panel of reviewers in the same subject area decide whether to accept each submission for publication.

For this reason, academic journals are often considered among the most credible sources you can use in a research project – provided that the journal itself is trustworthy and well regarded.

In general, the peer review process follows the following steps:

First, the author submits the manuscript to the editor.
Reject the manuscript and send it back to author, or
Send it onward to the selected peer reviewer(s)
Next, the peer review process occurs. The reviewer provides feedback, addressing any major or minor issues with the manuscript, and gives their advice regarding what edits should be made.
Lastly, the edited manuscript is sent back to the author. They input the edits, and resubmit it to the editor for publication.

Peer review can stop obviously problematic, falsified, or otherwise untrustworthy research from being published. It also represents an excellent opportunity to get feedback from renowned experts in your field.

It acts as a first defence, helping you ensure your argument is clear and that there are no gaps, vague terms, or unanswered questions for readers who weren’t involved in the research process.

Peer-reviewed articles are considered a highly credible source due to this stringent process they go through before publication.

Many academic fields use peer review , largely to determine whether a manuscript is suitable for publication. Peer review enhances the credibility of the published manuscript.

However, peer review is also common in non-academic settings. The United Nations, the European Union, and many individual nations use peer review to evaluate grant applications. It is also widely used in medical and health-related fields as a teaching or quality-of-care measure.

Peer assessment is often used in the classroom as a pedagogical tool. Both receiving feedback and providing it are thought to enhance the learning process, helping students think critically and collaboratively.

In a single-blind study , only the participants are blinded.
In a double-blind study , both participants and experimenters are blinded.
In a triple-blind study , the assignment is hidden not only from participants and experimenters, but also from the researchers analysing the data.

Blinding is important to reduce bias (e.g., observer bias , demand characteristics ) and ensure a study’s internal validity .

If participants know whether they are in a control or treatment group , they may adjust their behaviour in ways that affect the outcome that researchers are trying to measure. If the people administering the treatment are aware of group assignment, they may treat participants differently and thus directly or indirectly influence the final results.

Blinding means hiding who is assigned to the treatment group and who is assigned to the control group in an experiment .

Explanatory research is a research method used to investigate how or why something occurs when only a small amount of information is available pertaining to that topic. It can help you increase your understanding of a given topic.

Explanatory research is used to investigate how or why a phenomenon occurs. Therefore, this type of research is often one of the first stages in the research process , serving as a jumping-off point for future research.

Exploratory research is a methodology approach that explores research questions that have not previously been studied in depth. It is often used when the issue you’re studying is new, or the data collection process is challenging in some way.

Exploratory research is often used when the issue you’re studying is new or when the data collection process is challenging for some reason.

You can use exploratory research if you have a general idea or a specific question that you want to study but there is no preexisting knowledge or paradigm with which to study it.

To implement random assignment , assign a unique number to every member of your study’s sample .

Then, you can use a random number generator or a lottery method to randomly assign each number to a control or experimental group. You can also do so manually, by flipping a coin or rolling a die to randomly assign participants to groups.

Random selection, or random sampling , is a way of selecting members of a population for your study’s sample.

In contrast, random assignment is a way of sorting the sample into control and experimental groups.

Random sampling enhances the external validity or generalisability of your results, while random assignment improves the internal validity of your study.

Random assignment is used in experiments with a between-groups or independent measures design. In this research design, there’s usually a control group and one or more experimental groups. Random assignment helps ensure that the groups are comparable.

In general, you should always use random assignment in this type of experimental design when it is ethically possible and makes sense for your study topic.

Clean data are valid, accurate, complete, consistent, unique, and uniform. Dirty data include inconsistencies and errors.

Dirty data can come from any part of the research process, including poor research design , inappropriate measurement materials, or flawed data entry.

Data cleaning takes place between data collection and data analyses. But you can use some methods even before collecting data.

For clean data, you should start by designing measures that collect valid data. Data validation at the time of data entry or collection helps you minimize the amount of data cleaning you’ll need to do.

After data collection, you can use data standardisation and data transformation to clean your data. You’ll also deal with any missing values, outliers, and duplicate values.

Data cleaning involves spotting and resolving potential data inconsistencies or errors to improve your data quality. An error is any value (e.g., recorded weight) that doesn’t reflect the true value (e.g., actual weight) of something that’s being measured.

In this process, you review, analyse, detect, modify, or remove ‘dirty’ data to make your dataset ‘clean’. Data cleaning is also called data cleansing or data scrubbing.

Data cleaning is necessary for valid and appropriate analyses. Dirty data contain inconsistencies or errors , but cleaning your data helps you minimise or resolve these.

Without data cleaning, you could end up with a Type I or II error in your conclusion. These types of erroneous conclusions can be practically significant with important consequences, because they lead to misplaced investments or missed opportunities.

Observer bias occurs when a researcher’s expectations, opinions, or prejudices influence what they perceive or record in a study. It usually affects studies when observers are aware of the research aims or hypotheses. This type of research bias is also called detection bias or ascertainment bias .

The observer-expectancy effect occurs when researchers influence the results of their own study through interactions with participants.

Researchers’ own beliefs and expectations about the study results may unintentionally influence participants through demand characteristics .

You can use several tactics to minimise observer bias .

Use masking (blinding) to hide the purpose of your study from all observers.
Triangulate your data with different data collection methods or sources.
Use multiple observers and ensure inter-rater reliability.
Train your observers to make sure data is consistently recorded between them.
Standardise your observation procedures to make sure they are structured and clear.

Naturalistic observation is a valuable tool because of its flexibility, external validity , and suitability for topics that can’t be studied in a lab setting.

The downsides of naturalistic observation include its lack of scientific control , ethical considerations , and potential for bias from observers and subjects.

Naturalistic observation is a qualitative research method where you record the behaviours of your research subjects in real-world settings. You avoid interfering or influencing anything in a naturalistic observation.

You can think of naturalistic observation as ‘people watching’ with a purpose.

Closed-ended, or restricted-choice, questions offer respondents a fixed set of choices to select from. These questions are easier to answer quickly.

Open-ended or long-form questions allow respondents to answer in their own words. Because there are no restrictions on their choices, respondents can answer in ways that researchers may not have otherwise considered.

You can organise the questions logically, with a clear progression from simple to complex, or randomly between respondents. A logical flow helps respondents process the questionnaire easier and quicker, but it may lead to bias. Randomisation can minimise the bias from order effects.

Questionnaires can be self-administered or researcher-administered.

Self-administered questionnaires can be delivered online or in paper-and-pen formats, in person or by post. All questions are standardised so that all respondents receive the same questions with identical wording.

Researcher-administered questionnaires are interviews that take place by phone, in person, or online between researchers and respondents. You can gain deeper insights by clarifying questions for respondents or asking follow-up questions.

In a controlled experiment , all extraneous variables are held constant so that they can’t influence the results. Controlled experiments require:

A control group that receives a standard treatment, a fake treatment, or no treatment
Random assignment of participants to ensure the groups are equivalent

Depending on your study topic, there are various other methods of controlling variables .

An experimental group, also known as a treatment group, receives the treatment whose effect researchers wish to study, whereas a control group does not. They should be identical in all other ways.

A true experiment (aka a controlled experiment) always includes at least one control group that doesn’t receive the experimental treatment.

However, some experiments use a within-subjects design to test treatments without a control group. In these designs, you usually compare one group’s outcomes before and after a treatment (instead of comparing outcomes between different groups).

For strong internal validity , it’s usually best to include a control group if possible. Without a control group, it’s harder to be certain that the outcome was caused by the experimental treatment and not by other variables.

A questionnaire is a data collection tool or instrument, while a survey is an overarching research method that involves collecting and analysing data from people using questionnaires.

A Likert scale is a rating scale that quantitatively assesses opinions, attitudes, or behaviours. It is made up of four or more questions that measure a single attitude or trait when response scores are combined.

To use a Likert scale in a survey , you present participants with Likert-type questions or statements, and a continuum of items, usually with five or seven possible responses, to capture their degree of agreement.

Individual Likert-type questions are generally considered ordinal data , because the items have clear rank order, but don’t have an even distribution.

Overall Likert scale scores are sometimes treated as interval data. These scores are considered to have directionality and even spacing between them.

The type of data determines what statistical tests you should use to analyse your data.

A research hypothesis is your proposed answer to your research question. The research hypothesis usually includes an explanation (‘ x affects y because …’).

A statistical hypothesis, on the other hand, is a mathematical statement about a population parameter. Statistical hypotheses always come in pairs: the null and alternative hypotheses. In a well-designed study , the statistical hypotheses correspond logically to the research hypothesis.

A hypothesis states your predictions about what your research will find. It is a tentative answer to your research question that has not yet been tested. For some research projects, you might have to write several hypotheses that address different aspects of your research question.

A hypothesis is not just a guess. It should be based on existing theories and knowledge. It also has to be testable, which means you can support or refute it through scientific research methods (such as experiments, observations, and statistical analysis of data).

Cross-sectional studies are less expensive and time-consuming than many other types of study. They can provide useful insights into a population’s characteristics and identify correlations for further research.

Sometimes only cross-sectional data are available for analysis; other times your research question may only require a cross-sectional study to answer it.

Cross-sectional studies cannot establish a cause-and-effect relationship or analyse behaviour over a period of time. To investigate cause and effect, you need to do a longitudinal study or an experimental study .

Longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies are two different types of research design . In a cross-sectional study you collect data from a population at a specific point in time; in a longitudinal study you repeatedly collect data from the same sample over an extended period of time.

Longitudinal studies are better to establish the correct sequence of events, identify changes over time, and provide insight into cause-and-effect relationships, but they also tend to be more expensive and time-consuming than other types of studies.

The 1970 British Cohort Study , which has collected data on the lives of 17,000 Brits since their births in 1970, is one well-known example of a longitudinal study .

Longitudinal studies can last anywhere from weeks to decades, although they tend to be at least a year long.

A correlation reflects the strength and/or direction of the association between two or more variables.

A positive correlation means that both variables change in the same direction.
A negative correlation means that the variables change in opposite directions.
A zero correlation means there’s no relationship between the variables.

A correlational research design investigates relationships between two variables (or more) without the researcher controlling or manipulating any of them. It’s a non-experimental type of quantitative research .

A correlation coefficient is a single number that describes the strength and direction of the relationship between your variables.

Different types of correlation coefficients might be appropriate for your data based on their levels of measurement and distributions . The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r ) is commonly used to assess a linear relationship between two quantitative variables.

Controlled experiments establish causality, whereas correlational studies only show associations between variables.

In an experimental design , you manipulate an independent variable and measure its effect on a dependent variable. Other variables are controlled so they can’t impact the results.
In a correlational design , you measure variables without manipulating any of them. You can test whether your variables change together, but you can’t be sure that one variable caused a change in another.

In general, correlational research is high in external validity while experimental research is high in internal validity .

The third variable and directionality problems are two main reasons why correlation isn’t causation .

The third variable problem means that a confounding variable affects both variables to make them seem causally related when they are not.

The directionality problem is when two variables correlate and might actually have a causal relationship, but it’s impossible to conclude which variable causes changes in the other.

As a rule of thumb, questions related to thoughts, beliefs, and feelings work well in focus groups . Take your time formulating strong questions, paying special attention to phrasing. Be careful to avoid leading questions , which can bias your responses.

Overall, your focus group questions should be:

Open-ended and flexible
Impossible to answer with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (questions that start with ‘why’ or ‘how’ are often best)
Unambiguous, getting straight to the point while still stimulating discussion
Unbiased and neutral

Social desirability bias is the tendency for interview participants to give responses that will be viewed favourably by the interviewer or other participants. It occurs in all types of interviews and surveys , but is most common in semi-structured interviews , unstructured interviews , and focus groups .

Social desirability bias can be mitigated by ensuring participants feel at ease and comfortable sharing their views. Make sure to pay attention to your own body language and any physical or verbal cues, such as nodding or widening your eyes.

This type of bias in research can also occur in observations if the participants know they’re being observed. They might alter their behaviour accordingly.

A focus group is a research method that brings together a small group of people to answer questions in a moderated setting. The group is chosen due to predefined demographic traits, and the questions are designed to shed light on a topic of interest. It is one of four types of interviews .

An unstructured interview is the most flexible type of interview, but it is not always the best fit for your research topic.

Unstructured interviews are best used when:

You are an experienced interviewer and have a very strong background in your research topic, since it is challenging to ask spontaneous, colloquial questions
Your research question is exploratory in nature. While you may have developed hypotheses, you are open to discovering new or shifting viewpoints through the interview process.
You are seeking descriptive data, and are ready to ask questions that will deepen and contextualise your initial thoughts and hypotheses
Your research depends on forming connections with your participants and making them feel comfortable revealing deeper emotions, lived experiences, or thoughts

A semi-structured interview is a blend of structured and unstructured types of interviews. Semi-structured interviews are best used when:

You have prior interview experience. Spontaneous questions are deceptively challenging, and it’s easy to accidentally ask a leading question or make a participant uncomfortable.
Your research question is exploratory in nature. Participant answers can guide future research questions and help you develop a more robust knowledge base for future research.

The interviewer effect is a type of bias that emerges when a characteristic of an interviewer (race, age, gender identity, etc.) influences the responses given by the interviewee.

There is a risk of an interviewer effect in all types of interviews , but it can be mitigated by writing really high-quality interview questions.

A structured interview is a data collection method that relies on asking questions in a set order to collect data on a topic. They are often quantitative in nature. Structured interviews are best used when:

You already have a very clear understanding of your topic. Perhaps significant research has already been conducted, or you have done some prior research yourself, but you already possess a baseline for designing strong structured questions.
You are constrained in terms of time or resources and need to analyse your data quickly and efficiently
Your research question depends on strong parity between participants, with environmental conditions held constant

More flexible interview options include semi-structured interviews , unstructured interviews , and focus groups .

When conducting research, collecting original data has significant advantages:

You can tailor data collection to your specific research aims (e.g., understanding the needs of your consumers or user testing your website).
You can control and standardise the process for high reliability and validity (e.g., choosing appropriate measurements and sampling methods ).

However, there are also some drawbacks: data collection can be time-consuming, labour-intensive, and expensive. In some cases, it’s more efficient to use secondary data that has already been collected by someone else, but the data might be less reliable.

Data collection is the systematic process by which observations or measurements are gathered in research. It is used in many different contexts by academics, governments, businesses, and other organisations.

A mediator variable explains the process through which two variables are related, while a moderator variable affects the strength and direction of that relationship.

A confounder is a third variable that affects variables of interest and makes them seem related when they are not. In contrast, a mediator is the mechanism of a relationship between two variables: it explains the process by which they are related.

If something is a mediating variable :

It’s caused by the independent variable
It influences the dependent variable
When it’s taken into account, the statistical correlation between the independent and dependent variables is higher than when it isn’t considered

Including mediators and moderators in your research helps you go beyond studying a simple relationship between two variables for a fuller picture of the real world. They are important to consider when studying complex correlational or causal relationships.

Mediators are part of the causal pathway of an effect, and they tell you how or why an effect takes place. Moderators usually help you judge the external validity of your study by identifying the limitations of when the relationship between variables holds.

You can think of independent and dependent variables in terms of cause and effect: an independent variable is the variable you think is the cause , while a dependent variable is the effect .

In an experiment, you manipulate the independent variable and measure the outcome in the dependent variable. For example, in an experiment about the effect of nutrients on crop growth:

The independent variable is the amount of nutrients added to the crop field.
The dependent variable is the biomass of the crops at harvest time.

Defining your variables, and deciding how you will manipulate and measure them, is an important part of experimental design .

Discrete and continuous variables are two types of quantitative variables :

Discrete variables represent counts (e.g., the number of objects in a collection).
Continuous variables represent measurable amounts (e.g., water volume or weight).

Quantitative variables are any variables where the data represent amounts (e.g. height, weight, or age).

Categorical variables are any variables where the data represent groups. This includes rankings (e.g. finishing places in a race), classifications (e.g. brands of cereal), and binary outcomes (e.g. coin flips).

You need to know what type of variables you are working with to choose the right statistical test for your data and interpret your results .

Determining cause and effect is one of the most important parts of scientific research. It’s essential to know which is the cause – the independent variable – and which is the effect – the dependent variable.

You want to find out how blood sugar levels are affected by drinking diet cola and regular cola, so you conduct an experiment .

The type of cola – diet or regular – is the independent variable .
The level of blood sugar that you measure is the dependent variable – it changes depending on the type of cola.

No. The value of a dependent variable depends on an independent variable, so a variable cannot be both independent and dependent at the same time. It must be either the cause or the effect, not both.

Yes, but including more than one of either type requires multiple research questions .

For example, if you are interested in the effect of a diet on health, you can use multiple measures of health: blood sugar, blood pressure, weight, pulse, and many more. Each of these is its own dependent variable with its own research question.

You could also choose to look at the effect of exercise levels as well as diet, or even the additional effect of the two combined. Each of these is a separate independent variable .

To ensure the internal validity of an experiment , you should only change one independent variable at a time.

To ensure the internal validity of your research, you must consider the impact of confounding variables. If you fail to account for them, you might over- or underestimate the causal relationship between your independent and dependent variables , or even find a causal relationship where none exists.

A confounding variable is closely related to both the independent and dependent variables in a study. An independent variable represents the supposed cause , while the dependent variable is the supposed effect . A confounding variable is a third variable that influences both the independent and dependent variables.

Failing to account for confounding variables can cause you to wrongly estimate the relationship between your independent and dependent variables.

There are several methods you can use to decrease the impact of confounding variables on your research: restriction, matching, statistical control, and randomisation.

In restriction , you restrict your sample by only including certain subjects that have the same values of potential confounding variables.

In matching , you match each of the subjects in your treatment group with a counterpart in the comparison group. The matched subjects have the same values on any potential confounding variables, and only differ in the independent variable .

In statistical control , you include potential confounders as variables in your regression .

In randomisation , you randomly assign the treatment (or independent variable) in your study to a sufficiently large number of subjects, which allows you to control for all potential confounding variables.

In scientific research, concepts are the abstract ideas or phenomena that are being studied (e.g., educational achievement). Variables are properties or characteristics of the concept (e.g., performance at school), while indicators are ways of measuring or quantifying variables (e.g., yearly grade reports).

The process of turning abstract concepts into measurable variables and indicators is called operationalisation .

In statistics, ordinal and nominal variables are both considered categorical variables .

Even though ordinal data can sometimes be numerical, not all mathematical operations can be performed on them.

A control variable is any variable that’s held constant in a research study. It’s not a variable of interest in the study, but it’s controlled because it could influence the outcomes.

Control variables help you establish a correlational or causal relationship between variables by enhancing internal validity .

If you don’t control relevant extraneous variables , they may influence the outcomes of your study, and you may not be able to demonstrate that your results are really an effect of your independent variable .

‘Controlling for a variable’ means measuring extraneous variables and accounting for them statistically to remove their effects on other variables.

Researchers often model control variable data along with independent and dependent variable data in regression analyses and ANCOVAs . That way, you can isolate the control variable’s effects from the relationship between the variables of interest.

An extraneous variable is any variable that you’re not investigating that can potentially affect the dependent variable of your research study.

A confounding variable is a type of extraneous variable that not only affects the dependent variable, but is also related to the independent variable.

There are 4 main types of extraneous variables :

Demand characteristics : Environmental cues that encourage participants to conform to researchers’ expectations
Experimenter effects : Unintentional actions by researchers that influence study outcomes
Situational variables : Eenvironmental variables that alter participants’ behaviours
Participant variables : Any characteristic or aspect of a participant’s background that could affect study results

The difference between explanatory and response variables is simple:

An explanatory variable is the expected cause, and it explains the results.
A response variable is the expected effect, and it responds to other variables.

The term ‘ explanatory variable ‘ is sometimes preferred over ‘ independent variable ‘ because, in real-world contexts, independent variables are often influenced by other variables. This means they aren’t totally independent.

Multiple independent variables may also be correlated with each other, so ‘explanatory variables’ is a more appropriate term.

On graphs, the explanatory variable is conventionally placed on the x -axis, while the response variable is placed on the y -axis.

If you have quantitative variables , use a scatterplot or a line graph.
If your response variable is categorical, use a scatterplot or a line graph.
If your explanatory variable is categorical, use a bar graph.

A correlation is usually tested for two variables at a time, but you can test correlations between three or more variables.

An independent variable is the variable you manipulate, control, or vary in an experimental study to explore its effects. It’s called ‘independent’ because it’s not influenced by any other variables in the study.

Independent variables are also called:

Explanatory variables (they explain an event or outcome)
Predictor variables (they can be used to predict the value of a dependent variable)
Right-hand-side variables (they appear on the right-hand side of a regression equation)

A dependent variable is what changes as a result of the independent variable manipulation in experiments . It’s what you’re interested in measuring, and it ‘depends’ on your independent variable.

In statistics, dependent variables are also called:

Response variables (they respond to a change in another variable)
Outcome variables (they represent the outcome you want to measure)
Left-hand-side variables (they appear on the left-hand side of a regression equation)

Deductive reasoning is commonly used in scientific research, and it’s especially associated with quantitative research .

In research, you might have come across something called the hypothetico-deductive method . It’s the scientific method of testing hypotheses to check whether your predictions are substantiated by real-world data.

Deductive reasoning is a logical approach where you progress from general ideas to specific conclusions. It’s often contrasted with inductive reasoning , where you start with specific observations and form general conclusions.

Deductive reasoning is also called deductive logic.

Inductive reasoning is a method of drawing conclusions by going from the specific to the general. It’s usually contrasted with deductive reasoning, where you proceed from general information to specific conclusions.

Inductive reasoning is also called inductive logic or bottom-up reasoning.

In inductive research , you start by making observations or gathering data. Then, you take a broad scan of your data and search for patterns. Finally, you make general conclusions that you might incorporate into theories.

Inductive reasoning is a bottom-up approach, while deductive reasoning is top-down.

Inductive reasoning takes you from the specific to the general, while in deductive reasoning, you make inferences by going from general premises to specific conclusions.

There are many different types of inductive reasoning that people use formally or informally.

Here are a few common types:

Inductive generalisation : You use observations about a sample to come to a conclusion about the population it came from.
Statistical generalisation: You use specific numbers about samples to make statements about populations.
Causal reasoning: You make cause-and-effect links between different things.
Sign reasoning: You make a conclusion about a correlational relationship between different things.
Analogical reasoning: You make a conclusion about something based on its similarities to something else.

It’s often best to ask a variety of people to review your measurements. You can ask experts, such as other researchers, or laypeople, such as potential participants, to judge the face validity of tests.

While experts have a deep understanding of research methods , the people you’re studying can provide you with valuable insights you may have missed otherwise.

Face validity is important because it’s a simple first step to measuring the overall validity of a test or technique. It’s a relatively intuitive, quick, and easy way to start checking whether a new measure seems useful at first glance.

Good face validity means that anyone who reviews your measure says that it seems to be measuring what it’s supposed to. With poor face validity, someone reviewing your measure may be left confused about what you’re measuring and why you’re using this method.

Face validity is about whether a test appears to measure what it’s supposed to measure. This type of validity is concerned with whether a measure seems relevant and appropriate for what it’s assessing only on the surface.

Statistical analyses are often applied to test validity with data from your measures. You test convergent validity and discriminant validity with correlations to see if results from your test are positively or negatively related to those of other established tests.

You can also use regression analyses to assess whether your measure is actually predictive of outcomes that you expect it to predict theoretically. A regression analysis that supports your expectations strengthens your claim of construct validity .

When designing or evaluating a measure, construct validity helps you ensure you’re actually measuring the construct you’re interested in. If you don’t have construct validity, you may inadvertently measure unrelated or distinct constructs and lose precision in your research.

Construct validity is often considered the overarching type of measurement validity , because it covers all of the other types. You need to have face validity , content validity, and criterion validity to achieve construct validity.

Construct validity is about how well a test measures the concept it was designed to evaluate. It’s one of four types of measurement validity , which includes construct validity, face validity , and criterion validity.

There are two subtypes of construct validity.

Convergent validity : The extent to which your measure corresponds to measures of related constructs
Discriminant validity: The extent to which your measure is unrelated or negatively related to measures of distinct constructs

Attrition bias can skew your sample so that your final sample differs significantly from your original sample. Your sample is biased because some groups from your population are underrepresented.

With a biased final sample, you may not be able to generalise your findings to the original population that you sampled from, so your external validity is compromised.

There are seven threats to external validity : selection bias , history, experimenter effect, Hawthorne effect , testing effect, aptitude-treatment, and situation effect.

The two types of external validity are population validity (whether you can generalise to other groups of people) and ecological validity (whether you can generalise to other situations and settings).

The external validity of a study is the extent to which you can generalise your findings to different groups of people, situations, and measures.

Attrition bias is a threat to internal validity . In experiments, differential rates of attrition between treatment and control groups can skew results.

This bias can affect the relationship between your independent and dependent variables . It can make variables appear to be correlated when they are not, or vice versa.

Internal validity is the extent to which you can be confident that a cause-and-effect relationship established in a study cannot be explained by other factors.

There are eight threats to internal validity : history, maturation, instrumentation, testing, selection bias , regression to the mean, social interaction, and attrition .

A sampling error is the difference between a population parameter and a sample statistic .

A statistic refers to measures about the sample , while a parameter refers to measures about the population .

Populations are used when a research question requires data from every member of the population. This is usually only feasible when the population is small and easily accessible.

Systematic sampling is a probability sampling method where researchers select members of the population at a regular interval – for example, by selecting every 15th person on a list of the population. If the population is in a random order, this can imitate the benefits of simple random sampling .

There are three key steps in systematic sampling :

Define and list your population , ensuring that it is not ordered in a cyclical or periodic order.
Decide on your sample size and calculate your interval, k , by dividing your population by your target sample size.
Choose every k th member of the population as your sample.

Yes, you can create a stratified sample using multiple characteristics, but you must ensure that every participant in your study belongs to one and only one subgroup. In this case, you multiply the numbers of subgroups for each characteristic to get the total number of groups.

For example, if you were stratifying by location with three subgroups (urban, rural, or suburban) and marital status with five subgroups (single, divorced, widowed, married, or partnered), you would have 3 × 5 = 15 subgroups.

You should use stratified sampling when your sample can be divided into mutually exclusive and exhaustive subgroups that you believe will take on different mean values for the variable that you’re studying.

Using stratified sampling will allow you to obtain more precise (with lower variance ) statistical estimates of whatever you are trying to measure.

For example, say you want to investigate how income differs based on educational attainment, but you know that this relationship can vary based on race. Using stratified sampling, you can ensure you obtain a large enough sample from each racial group, allowing you to draw more precise conclusions.

In stratified sampling , researchers divide subjects into subgroups called strata based on characteristics that they share (e.g., race, gender, educational attainment).

Once divided, each subgroup is randomly sampled using another probability sampling method .

Multistage sampling can simplify data collection when you have large, geographically spread samples, and you can obtain a probability sample without a complete sampling frame.

But multistage sampling may not lead to a representative sample, and larger samples are needed for multistage samples to achieve the statistical properties of simple random samples .

In multistage sampling , you can use probability or non-probability sampling methods.

For a probability sample, you have to probability sampling at every stage. You can mix it up by using simple random sampling , systematic sampling , or stratified sampling to select units at different stages, depending on what is applicable and relevant to your study.

Cluster sampling is a probability sampling method in which you divide a population into clusters, such as districts or schools, and then randomly select some of these clusters as your sample.

The clusters should ideally each be mini-representations of the population as a whole.

There are three types of cluster sampling : single-stage, double-stage and multi-stage clustering. In all three types, you first divide the population into clusters, then randomly select clusters for use in your sample.

In single-stage sampling , you collect data from every unit within the selected clusters.
In double-stage sampling , you select a random sample of units from within the clusters.
In multi-stage sampling , you repeat the procedure of randomly sampling elements from within the clusters until you have reached a manageable sample.

Cluster sampling is more time- and cost-efficient than other probability sampling methods , particularly when it comes to large samples spread across a wide geographical area.

However, it provides less statistical certainty than other methods, such as simple random sampling , because it is difficult to ensure that your clusters properly represent the population as a whole.

If properly implemented, simple random sampling is usually the best sampling method for ensuring both internal and external validity . However, it can sometimes be impractical and expensive to implement, depending on the size of the population to be studied,

If you have a list of every member of the population and the ability to reach whichever members are selected, you can use simple random sampling.

The American Community Survey is an example of simple random sampling . In order to collect detailed data on the population of the US, the Census Bureau officials randomly select 3.5 million households per year and use a variety of methods to convince them to fill out the survey.

Simple random sampling is a type of probability sampling in which the researcher randomly selects a subset of participants from a population . Each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected. Data are then collected from as large a percentage as possible of this random subset.

Sampling bias occurs when some members of a population are systematically more likely to be selected in a sample than others.

In multistage sampling , or multistage cluster sampling, you draw a sample from a population using smaller and smaller groups at each stage.

This method is often used to collect data from a large, geographically spread group of people in national surveys, for example. You take advantage of hierarchical groupings (e.g., from county to city to neighbourhood) to create a sample that’s less expensive and time-consuming to collect data from.

In non-probability sampling , the sample is selected based on non-random criteria, and not every member of the population has a chance of being included.

Common non-probability sampling methods include convenience sampling , voluntary response sampling, purposive sampling , snowball sampling , and quota sampling .

Probability sampling means that every member of the target population has a known chance of being included in the sample.

Probability sampling methods include simple random sampling , systematic sampling , stratified sampling , and cluster sampling .

Samples are used to make inferences about populations . Samples are easier to collect data from because they are practical, cost-effective, convenient, and manageable.

While a between-subjects design has fewer threats to internal validity , it also requires more participants for high statistical power than a within-subjects design .

Advantages:

Prevents carryover effects of learning and fatigue.
Shorter study duration.

Disadvantages:

Needs larger samples for high power.
Uses more resources to recruit participants, administer sessions, cover costs, etc.
Individual differences may be an alternative explanation for results.

In a factorial design, multiple independent variables are tested.

If you test two variables, each level of one independent variable is combined with each level of the other independent variable to create different conditions.

Yes. Between-subjects and within-subjects designs can be combined in a single study when you have two or more independent variables (a factorial design). In a mixed factorial design, one variable is altered between subjects and another is altered within subjects.

Within-subjects designs have many potential threats to internal validity , but they are also very statistically powerful .

Only requires small samples
Statistically powerful
Removes the effects of individual differences on the outcomes
Internal validity threats reduce the likelihood of establishing a direct relationship between variables
Time-related effects, such as growth, can influence the outcomes
Carryover effects mean that the specific order of different treatments affect the outcomes

Quasi-experimental design is most useful in situations where it would be unethical or impractical to run a true experiment .

Quasi-experiments have lower internal validity than true experiments, but they often have higher external validity as they can use real-world interventions instead of artificial laboratory settings.

In experimental research, random assignment is a way of placing participants from your sample into different groups using randomisation. With this method, every member of the sample has a known or equal chance of being placed in a control group or an experimental group.

A quasi-experiment is a type of research design that attempts to establish a cause-and-effect relationship. The main difference between this and a true experiment is that the groups are not randomly assigned.

In a between-subjects design , every participant experiences only one condition, and researchers assess group differences between participants in various conditions.

In a within-subjects design , each participant experiences all conditions, and researchers test the same participants repeatedly for differences between conditions.

The word ‘between’ means that you’re comparing different conditions between groups, while the word ‘within’ means you’re comparing different conditions within the same group.

A confounding variable , also called a confounder or confounding factor, is a third variable in a study examining a potential cause-and-effect relationship.

A confounding variable is related to both the supposed cause and the supposed effect of the study. It can be difficult to separate the true effect of the independent variable from the effect of the confounding variable.

In your research design , it’s important to identify potential confounding variables and plan how you will reduce their impact.

Triangulation can help:

Reduce bias that comes from using a single method, theory, or investigator
Enhance validity by approaching the same topic with different tools
Establish credibility by giving you a complete picture of the research problem

But triangulation can also pose problems:

It’s time-consuming and labour-intensive, often involving an interdisciplinary team.
Your results may be inconsistent or even contradictory.

There are four main types of triangulation :

Data triangulation : Using data from different times, spaces, and people
Investigator triangulation : Involving multiple researchers in collecting or analysing data
Theory triangulation : Using varying theoretical perspectives in your research
Methodological triangulation : Using different methodologies to approach the same topic

Experimental designs are a set of procedures that you plan in order to examine the relationship between variables that interest you.

To design a successful experiment, first identify:

A testable hypothesis
One or more independent variables that you will manipulate
One or more dependent variables that you will measure

When designing the experiment, first decide:

How your variable(s) will be manipulated
How you will control for any potential confounding or lurking variables
How many subjects you will include
How you will assign treatments to your subjects

Exploratory research explores the main aspects of a new or barely researched question.

Explanatory research explains the causes and effects of an already widely researched question.

The key difference between observational studies and experiments is that, done correctly, an observational study will never influence the responses or behaviours of participants. Experimental designs will have a treatment condition applied to at least a portion of participants.

An observational study could be a good fit for your research if your research question is based on things you observe. If you have ethical, logistical, or practical concerns that make an experimental design challenging, consider an observational study. Remember that in an observational study, it is critical that there be no interference or manipulation of the research subjects. Since it’s not an experiment, there are no control or treatment groups either.

These are four of the most common mixed methods designs :

Convergent parallel: Quantitative and qualitative data are collected at the same time and analysed separately. After both analyses are complete, compare your results to draw overall conclusions.
Embedded: Quantitative and qualitative data are collected at the same time, but within a larger quantitative or qualitative design. One type of data is secondary to the other.
Explanatory sequential: Quantitative data is collected and analysed first, followed by qualitative data. You can use this design if you think your qualitative data will explain and contextualise your quantitative findings.
Exploratory sequential: Qualitative data is collected and analysed first, followed by quantitative data. You can use this design if you think the quantitative data will confirm or validate your qualitative findings.

Triangulation in research means using multiple datasets, methods, theories and/or investigators to address a research question. It’s a research strategy that can help you enhance the validity and credibility of your findings.

Triangulation is mainly used in qualitative research , but it’s also commonly applied in quantitative research . Mixed methods research always uses triangulation.

Operationalisation means turning abstract conceptual ideas into measurable observations.

For example, the concept of social anxiety isn’t directly observable, but it can be operationally defined in terms of self-rating scores, behavioural avoidance of crowded places, or physical anxiety symptoms in social situations.

Before collecting data , it’s important to consider how you will operationalise the variables that you want to measure.

Hypothesis testing is a formal procedure for investigating our ideas about the world using statistics. It is used by scientists to test specific predictions, called hypotheses , by calculating how likely it is that a pattern or relationship between variables could have arisen by chance.

There are five common approaches to qualitative research :

Grounded theory involves collecting data in order to develop new theories.
Ethnography involves immersing yourself in a group or organisation to understand its culture.
Narrative research involves interpreting stories to understand how people make sense of their experiences and perceptions.
Phenomenological research involves investigating phenomena through people’s lived experiences.
Action research links theory and practice in several cycles to drive innovative changes.

There are various approaches to qualitative data analysis , but they all share five steps in common:

Prepare and organise your data.
Review and explore your data.
Develop a data coding system.
Assign codes to the data.
Identify recurring themes.

The specifics of each step depend on the focus of the analysis. Some common approaches include textual analysis , thematic analysis , and discourse analysis .

In mixed methods research , you use both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods to answer your research question .

Methodology refers to the overarching strategy and rationale of your research project . It involves studying the methods used in your field and the theories or principles behind them, in order to develop an approach that matches your objectives.

Methods are the specific tools and procedures you use to collect and analyse data (e.g. experiments, surveys , and statistical tests ).

In shorter scientific papers, where the aim is to report the findings of a specific study, you might simply describe what you did in a methods section .

In a longer or more complex research project, such as a thesis or dissertation , you will probably include a methodology section , where you explain your approach to answering the research questions and cite relevant sources to support your choice of methods.

The research methods you use depend on the type of data you need to answer your research question .

If you want to measure something or test a hypothesis , use quantitative methods . If you want to explore ideas, thoughts, and meanings, use qualitative methods .
If you want to analyse a large amount of readily available data, use secondary data. If you want data specific to your purposes with control over how they are generated, collect primary data.
If you want to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables , use experimental methods. If you want to understand the characteristics of a research subject, use descriptive methods.

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Interview Essay

Essay writing is different for everyone. Some people choose to go to the library and search for facts on a given subject, while others like to focus on gathering information through personal statements .

During this interview process, interviewers typically ask a series of interview questionnaire that their readers may want to know about. These details are either recorded or jotted down by the interviewee. With what has been gathered, an individual may then write a complete essay regarding the exchange.

Interview Essay Sample

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Personal Interview Essay Template

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Nursing Interview Essay Template

Size: 123 KB

Leadership Interview Essay Template

Size: 154 KB

Teacher Interview Essay Template

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Job Interview Essay Sample

Narrative Interview

Size: 70 KB

Career Interview Essay

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What Is an Interview Essay?

Interview essays are typically based on research gathered from personal testimonies. This could be based on one’s personal experiences or their own input on a given matter. It may be informative essay , descriptive essay , or even persuasive essays , depending on the questions asked by the interviewer.

The content of the essay may include direct quotes from the interview or it may come in a written narrative form. Through this, we are able to gain additional information from a particular perspective.

What to Include in an Interview Essay

For every essay, a thesis statement is needed to help your readers understand the subject being tackled in your work. For an interview short essay , you would need to talk about your interviewee. Any information that will create a credible image for your interviewee will be necessary.

Next, it’s necessary to include the significant ideas that you have acquired from your interview. Ideally, you should pick three of these ideas, elaborate what has been said, and present it in paragraphs. Be sure to emphasize these points in a detailed and concise manner, a lengthy explanation might be too redundant. You may also see sample essay outlines .

Leadership Essay

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Nursing Interview Example

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Personal Interview

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Parent Interview Sample

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Guidelines for an Interview Essay

When writing an interview essay, it would be best to create an outline first.

Organize the information you have gathered from your interviewee and structure it in a logical order. This could be from one’s personal information to the most compelling details gathered. Be reminded of the standard parts of an essay and be sure to apply it to your own work.

Even when most, if not all, of your essay’s content is based on what you have gathered from your interviewee, you would still need to create a good starting of essay and end to your essay.

Additionally, do not forget to put quotation marks around the exact words used by your interviewee. It would also be best to proofread your work and make sure that there is a smooth transition for each thought. You may also like personal essay examples & samples.

How to Conclude an Interview Essay?

You can end your interview essay how ever you wish to do so. It could be about your learning from the interview, a call to action, or a brief summary writing from what has been expressed in the essay.

But keep in mind, this would depend on your purpose for writing the essay. For instance, if you interviewed a biologist to spread awareness about mother nature, then it would be best to conclude your essay with a call to action. Knowing this, it’s important to end your essay well enough for it to be memorable.

Interview Essay Generator

Text prompt

Instructive
Professional

Write an Interview Essay on a local community leader.

Discuss the career journey of a teacher in your Interview Essay.

ReviseSociology

A level sociology revision – education, families, research methods, crime and deviance and more!

Interviews in Social Research: Advantages and Disadvantages

The strengths of unstructured interviews are that they are respondent led, flexible, allow empathy and can be empowering, the limitations are poor reliability due to interviewer characteristics and bias, time, and low representativeness.

Table of Contents

Last Updated on September 11, 2023 by Karl Thompson

An interview involves an interviewer asking questions verbally to a respondent. Interviews involve a more direct interaction between the researcher and the respondent than questionnaires. Interviews can either be conducted face to face, via phone, video link or social media.

This post has primarily been written for students studying the Research Methods aspect of A-level sociology, but it should also be useful for students studying methods for psychology, business studies and maybe other subjects too!

Types of interview

Structured or formal interviews are those in which the interviewer asks the interviewee the same questions in the same way to different respondents. This will typically involve reading out questions from a pre-written and pre-coded structured questionnaire, which forms the interview schedule. The most familiar form of this is with market research, where you may have been stopped on the street with a researcher ticking boxes based on your responses.

Unstructured or Informal interviews (also called discovery interviews) are more like a guided conversation. Here the interviewer has a list of topics they want the respondent to talk about, but the interviewer has complete freedom to vary the specific questions from respondent to respondent, so they can follow whatever lines of enquiry they think are most appropriated, depending on the responses given by each respondent.

Semi-Structured interviews are those in which respondents have a list of questions, but they are free to ask further, differentiated questions based on the responses given. This allows more flexibility that the structured interview yet more structure than the informal interview.

Group interviews – Interviews can be conducted either one to one (individual interviews) or in a a group, in which the interviewer interviews two or more respondents at a time. Group discussions among respondents may lead to deeper insight than just interviewing people along, as respondents ‘encourage’ each other.

Focus groups are a type of group interview in which respondents are asked to discuss certain topics.

Interviews: key terms

The Interview Schedule – A list of questions or topic areas the interviewer wishes to ask or cover in the course of the interview. The more structured the interview, the more rigid the interiew schedule will be. Before conducting an interview it is usual for the reseracher to know something about the topic area and the respondents themselves, and so they will have at least some idea of the questions they are likely to ask: even if they are doing ‘unstructred interviews’ an interviewer will have some kind of interview schedule, even if it is just a list of broad topic areas to discuss, or an opening question.

Transcription of interviews -Transcription is the process of writing down (or typing up) what respondents say in an interview. In order to be able to transcribe effectively interviews will need to be recorded.

The problem of Leading Questions – In Unstructured Interviews, the interviewer should aim to avoid asking leading questions.

The Strengths and Limitations of Unstructured Interviews

The strengths of unstructured interviews

The key strength of unstructured interviews is good validity , but for this to happen questioning should be as open ended as possible to gain genuine, spontaneous information rather than ‘rehearsed responses’ and questioning needs to be sufficient enough to elicit in-depth answers rather than glib, easy answers.

Respondent led – unstructured interviews are ‘respondent led’ – this is because the researcher listens to what the respondent says and then asks further questions based on what the respondent says. This should allow respondents to express themselves and explain their views more fully than with structured interviews.

Flexibility – the researcher can change his or her mind about what the most important questions are as the interview develops. Unstructured Interviews thus avoid the imposition problem – respondents are less constrained than with structured interviews or questionnaires in which the questions are written in advance by the researcher. This is especially advantageous in group interviews, where interaction between respondents can spark conversations that the interviewer hadn’t thought would of happened in advance, which could then be probed further with an unstructured methodology.

Rapport and empathy – unstructured interviews encourage a good rapport between interviewee and interviewer. Because of their informal nature, like guided conversations, unstructured interviews are more likely to make respondents feel at ease than with the more formal setting of a structured questionnaire or experiment. This should encourage openness, trust and empathy.

Checking understanding – unstructured interviews also allow the interviewer to check understanding. If an interviewee doesn’t understand a question, the interviewer is free to rephrase it, or to ask follow up questions to clarify aspects of answers that were not clear in the first instance.

Unstructured interviews are good for sensitive topics because they are more likely to make respondents feel at ease with the interviewer. They also allow the interviewer to show more sympathy (if required) than with the colder more mechanical quantitative methods.

They are good for finding out why respondents do not do certain things . For example postal surveys asking why people do not claim benefits have very low response rates, but informal interviews are perfect for researching people who may have low literacy skills.

Empowerment for respondents – the researcher and respondents are on a more equal footing than with more quantitative methods. The researcher doesn’t assume they know best. This empowers the respondents. Feminists researchers in particular believe that the unstructured interview can neutralise the hierarchical, exploitative power relations that they believe to be inherent in the more traditional interview structure. They see the traditional interview as a site for the exploitation and subordination of women, with the interviewers potentially creating outcomes against their interviewees’ interests. In traditional interview formats the interviewer directs the questioning and takes ownership of the material; in the feminist (unstructured) interview method the woman would recount her experiences in her own words with the interviewer serving only as a guide to the account.

Practical advantages – there are few practical advantages with this method, but compared to full-blown participant observation, they are a relatively quick method for gaining in-depth data. They are also a good method to combine with overt participant observation in order to get respondents to further explain the meanings behind their actions. So in short, they are impractical, unless you’re in the middle of a year long Participant Observation study (it’s all relative!).

The Limitations of unstructured interviews

The main theoretical disadvantage is the lack of reliability – unstructured Interviews lack reliability because each interview is unique – a variety of different questions are asked and phrased in a variety of different ways to different respondents.

They are also difficult to repeat, because the s uccess of the interview depends on the bond of trust between the researcher and the respondent – another researcher who does not relate to the respondent may thus get different answers. Group interviews are especially difficult to repeat, given that the dynamics of the interview are influenced not just by the values of the researcher, but also by group dynamics. One person can change the dynamic of a group of three or four people enormously.

Validity can be undermined in several ways:

respondents might prefer to give rational responses rather than fuller emotional ones (it’s harder to talk frankly about emotions with strangers)
respondents may not reveal their true thoughts and feelings because they do not coincide with their own self-image, so they simply withhold information
respondents may give answers they think the interviewer wants to hear, in attempt to please them!

We also need to keep in mind that interviews can only tap into what people SAY about their values, beliefs and actions, we don’t actually get to see these in action, like we would do with observational studies such as Participant Observation. This has been a particular problem with self-report studies of criminal behaviour. These have been tested using polygraphs, and follow up studies of school and criminal records and responses found to be lacking in validity, so much so that victim-surveys have become the standard method for measuring crime rather than self-report studies.

Interviewer bias might undermine the validity of unstructured interviews – this is where the values of the researcher interfere with the results. The researcher may give away whether they approve or disapprove of certain responses in their body language or tone of voice (or wording of probing questions) and this in turn might encourage or discourage respondents from being honest.

The characteristics of the interviewer might also bias the results and undermine the validity – how honest the respondent is in the course of an hour long interview might depend on the class, gender, or ethnicity of the interviewer.

Sudman and Bradburn (1974) conducted a review of literature and found that responses varied depending on the relative demographics of the interviewer and respondent. For example white interviewers received more socially acceptable responses from black respondents than they did from white respondents. Similar findings have been found with different ethnicities, age, social class and religion.

Unstructured interviews also lack representativeness – because they are time consuming, it is difficult to get a large enough sample to be representative of large populations.

It is difficult to quantify data , compare answers and find stats and trends because the data gained is qualitative.

Practical disadvantages – unstructured Interviews may take a relatively long time to conduct. Some interviews can take hours. They also need to be taped and transcribed, and in the analysis phase there may be a lot of information that is not directly relevant to one’s research topic that needs to be sifted through.

Interpersonal skills and training – A further practical problem is that some researchers may lack the interpersonal skills required to conduct informal unstructured interviews. Training might need to be more thorough for researchers undertaking unstructured interviews – to avoid the problem of interviewer bias.

Shapiro and Eberhart (1947) showed that interviewers who were more prepared to probe received fuller answers, and both response rate and extensiveness of response are greater for more experienced interviewers.

There are few ethical problems , assuming that informed consent is gained and confidentially ensured. Although having said this, the fact that the researcher is getting more in-depth data, more of an insight into who the person really is, does offer the potential for the information to do more harm to the respondent if it got into the wrong hands (but this in turn depends on the topics discussed and the exact content of the interviews.

Sociological perspectives on interviews

Interviews of any kind are not a preferred method for positivists because there is no guarantee that responses aren’t artefacts of the interview situation, rather than a reflection of underlying social reality.

If interviews must be used, Positivists prefer structured interviews that follow a standardised schedule, with each question asked to each respondent in the same way. Interviewers should be neutral, show no emotion, avoid suggesting replies, and not skip questions.

Fo r Interactionists , interviews are based on mutual participant observation. The context of the interview is intrinsic to understanding responses and no distinction between research interviews and other social interaction is recognised. Data are valid when mutual understanding between interviewer and respondent is agreed.

Interactionists prefer non-standardised interviews because they allow respondents to shape the interview according to their own world view.

Denzin (2009) goes as far as to argue that what positivists might perceive as problems with interviews are not problems, just part of the process and thus as valid as the data collected. Thus issues of self-presentation, the power relations between interviewer and respondent and opportunities for fabrication are all part of the context and part of the valid-reality that we are trying to get to.

For more posts on research methods please see my research methods page.

Examples of studies using interviews – Using Interviews to research education .

Participant Observation – A related qualitative research method – detailed class notes on overt and covert participant observation.

Please click here to return to the homepage – ReviseSociology.com

Recommended further reading: Gilbert and Stoneman (2016) Researching Social Life

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Different Ways of Conducting Interviews Essay

Introduction.

Types of Interviews

Types of interview questions

Recommendations.

An interview is undoubtedly one of the most accurate forms of getting detailed information from the source itself (Solly, 2007). There are several types of interviews, varying from the type of questions asked to the strategic approach applied to them. Interviews can be direct or indirect. Direct interviews involve both the interviewer and interviewee being physically present and communicating by questions and answers. For example, in a live T.V show (Harcup, 2009). Indirect communication entails asking questions via a third party. This paper discusses the various modes of conducting interviews and their effectiveness.

Informal (conversational)

The individual interview is also known as the personal interview—the most common type of interview I used in most of my interviews. This type of interview involved a face-to-face question-and-answer forum, where I was allocated a stipulated period to seek answers. The allocated time ranged from thirty to ninety minutes. If the allocated time was on the minimum side, then I opted to draft down the questions in a logical yet concise way. This enabled offering brief, straightforward answers to the questions. However, in certain situations, I did use longer periods as an advantage to dig deeper into details and reduce generalizations, which I had earlier made. The allocation of time was dependent on the prevailing circumstances. For instance, in the interview titled remembering Belleau Wood, I would use much time to ask questions I thought were more important than the others were, hence, the times in bracket.

General interview guide approach

In this type of interview, I meet with important decision-makers of a committee or organization. In this case, the decision-makers were usually the interviewees while the interviewer was a single individual or a group represented by a single individual. This type of interview is practiced when an individual is seeking a job opportunity at an organization. It is usually advisable to expect a wide range of perceptions and interpretations of answers from a single question that one asks as an interviewer. Certain aspects of conversation need to be cautiously observed during these types of interviews such as eye contact and confidence in speech. I also saw the necessity of knowing the names of the interview participants and their job titles. Osprey Gunny is an example of an interview in which employed the use of the general guide approach.

Standardized (open-ended interview)

In standardized (open-ended interview), the interview was usually preceded or proceeded by an individual interviewer or a panel of interviewers. In most cases, the interviewees called back to add more information that he or they felt was necessary. Only on rare occasions did I find a group of decision-makers disagreeing on the selection and final report of candidates shortlisted for a second interview. For example, when studying the interview on Newtok, Alaska Relocation, or on a title whose subject matter is the scramble for independence in a country, such as Ghana, I was likely to interview surviving freedom fighters of that period. After the first encounter, the interviewee would decide to add more information to what they had provided during the first interview. During such interviews, I would reflect on the asked questions and try to build on them. This, in some instances, led to the uncovering of information that might have not come out clearly in the first face of the interview. For instance, learning more about important events, their happenings and the core reasons why they occurred during the scramble of independence of that particular country may enable the interviewer to assess the outcome better (Publishing, 2001).

Closed, fixed-response interview

This format was useful to me for I was inexperienced in interviewing. This is usually more of a brain challenge to interviewers (Allan, 2005). The interviewer is offered a set of tasks and asked to choose the appropriate one for their handling. The task bestowed upon the interviewer involves using critical, analytical, technical, as well as basic interviewing skills. In task-oriented types of interviews, the ultimate requirement is to produce an appeasing report of what one was asked to do.

Succeeding in an interview involved understanding the task itself and the type of interview to be used to accomplish the goal. Furthermore, the types of questions to be asked during that period served as an important factor to reveal all the necessary information required. There are three major types of questions that an interviewer or interviewee can ask or answer—an open-end question, a closed-end question, and a hypothetical question. The open-end and closed-end questions are the most used types of questions as compared to the hypothetical ones, which breeds generalization. To ace the interview, one should be aware of their differences (Solly, 2007). The preference of question type varies depending on the specific circumstance.

Open-end questions

Open-end questions are asked to simply know more about the interviewee. They demand more than a brief affirmative or negative response, i.e. yes or no. Generally, the open-end question tells more about the condition of the interviewee’s thoughts and aids to put them at ease with what they are answering. An example of an open-end question can be, “tell me about your childhood experiences.” Such a question, by all manner of sounding, requires neither a simple yes or no, nor a one-liner sentence. It calls for a tale of a chain of events that occurred chronologically one after the other. Failure to give a full response to such a question may lead to a vague understanding. Therefore, it all depended on my ability to pose the questions correctly in a manner understandable by the interviewee. The interview titled Osprey Gunny is a good example in which I employed open-ended questions to allow for answers from any perspective.

Close-end questions

Close-end questions are the exact opposite of the open-end type; they accept a yes or no for an answer. However, as succinct they might be, these questions usually require a supporting relevant example. An example of a closed-end question can be phrased as follows, “have you ever had a car accident?” This question will automatically require a yes or no. However, to aid the interviewer in making their report, it will require support in form of a date, specific time, and location at which the accident occurred, if it did. While phrasing a question, it should be done in a way that will not offend the respondent in any way. One can do this by coming up with several questions of the same kind that require the same answer, then choosing the most appropriate one (Stephenson, 1998). In “The Lioness,” I employed several open-ended questions. Nevertheless, it still never went well.

Hypothetical Questions

A hypothetical question, as the name suggests, is that which is based on mere suggestions. Most of these questions begin with the phrase ‘what if’. They are used to determine the stability or plans of an individual indirectly. For instance, while interviewing a group of enthusiastic performers, and one would like to know how serious they are with an upcoming event in which they are likely to feature, one can ask, “what if the judges turn you down because of your inability to please to them?” Such a question will draw several answers from more than one perspective.

Different journalists use different approach strategies to arrive at the answer they require for the final reports. Some journalists prefer the ascending order of questions based on their chronology and depth to the descending, whereas others prefer the opposite. Other journalists prefer posing the questions as they come to juggle up the thoughts of the respondent. I was privileged to choose the strategic approach that I wanted to use. In two of the conducted research interviews from Marine TV, it is quite evident that I used an ascending order of questions to retrieve information from the viewers. In other interviews, I used the descending and indirect means of getting answers to questions.

The first case of such an approach is the Sgt saxophone future, whereby, I first gave an overview of the event and what it entailed. Introducing the audience followed this to Sergeant Jackson who introduced himself and his occupation. Note that at this point the sergeant gives background information on his history as a marine. There was also use of the indirect open-end question that led the sergeant to state all the information. Another use of the open-end question led the Sergeant to tell more about his past. This is seen at the point where he states that he graduated from boot camp and returned to try to complete his undergraduate degree. I further narrowed it down to see the perception of students on the characters’ behavior. A third party, Kyle, was interviewed. From Kyle, the audience understands that the sergeant understands people’s strengths, weaknesses, and offers encouragement.

A similar case is an interview on the Newtok—Alaska’s relocation. Ascending order of questions is seen when I have begun by giving a slight overview. The marine leader then tells of their accomplishments and achievements and what they plan to do. After this, I asked about the challenges they have faced during the period in which they were struggling to relocate. This is also an ascending type of question because I first boosted the morale of the respondent and then asked a question not many proud achievers would like to answer. The respondents willingly answered the posed question due to the previously asked questions. To get more answers, a genuine question that is more of an open-end was posed thus drawing several answers from the correspondents.

The interview on Lioness shows a descending way of asking questions. Immediately after the overview information is given out, I head straight to the main question of the interview. This leads the respondent to give out an unsatisfactory answer and thus minute information is obtained. The flows of questions from one to the other seem to obtain satisfactory answers but are ambiguous to the interview.

Critiques of Various Interviews

An environment that least distorts the information one is passing across is professionally recommended for interviews. Failure to find a suitable environment may lead to interference of information, resulting in poor translation by the receiving end of the interview (Verity, 2004). Another factor that needs to be considered is time. Adequate time is required during an interview to avoid the interviewee just placing answers for the sake of answering a question. Some of the interviews on marine TV did not adhere to these professional requirements (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2007).

Remembering Belleau Wood

It is obvious from the onset of the interview that there was a lot of interruption from the external environment. Flyovers, marine hymns, and other sounds are a disruption to the accuracy of the interview. The noises due to technical problems of the team led to too much interviewing time getting lost. Furthermore, I had to paraphrase a question differently every time to ensure that he gets answers from the respondent.

In addition, the time factor is to be considered. The time at the end of the interviewee’s statements is approximate to the total time he took to digest the question and respond to it. I was fast in asking questions, therefore, assimilated the interviewee to respond to them at the same pace. From a critical point of view, the answers given are not as accurate as expected; enough time should have been allocated for the consideration of the questions asked and producing satisfactory answers. Also, from the onset of the interview, the respondent is somehow not willing to give out every detail they know about Belleau Wood.

From the interview of Todd Hunter and Pam, it is quite clear that there is ineffective communication between the two parties. In the section where I interrogate Pam, there is an answer although it is different from the required answer. For instance, at this point:

“Narration –before that can happen, female service members must first learn local customs and cultures. They’re also trained in marine corps, martial arts, weapons handling, and rules of engagement. It’s usually a far cry from their everyday duties, but it’s a job they volunteer for. This is the story of one lioness…

Pam – we called her boo. That was her nickname, boo.

Narration – proud mothers hardly ever hold back.

Pam – because she cried a lot when she was a baby|”

From the two critiques, it is better to allocate more time to the respondent to allow them to think about what they are answering, not to create unwanted suggestions that might at one-time tamper with the respondent’s rapport. Time allocation will serve to make the interviewee think about the matter being questioned. This will lead to them giving accurate answers that will not call for onsite interviewing.

An environment serene that is conducive enough should be chosen to avoid interferences from external factors. For example, keep away from noise and destruction as much as possible. The tranquility will allow for composure and avoid any wrong structuring of the statements. It will also lead to one getting accurate information and avoiding answers unplanned answers. Double-checking the conditions of the devices that are being used, such as the sound system is important. Failure to do so may result in interference during the interview, leading to many inconveniences.

Listening Skills and Roles Of Non-Verbal Cues

Listening skills allow for an interviewer to receive maximum information from an interview. Non-verbal communication allows one to understand the mood of the interviewee. From that, one can know whether to ask a question. Depending on the emotional expressions of the respondent, the interviewer can either change or continue with the chain of questions that have been drafted. There are several listening and non-verbal communications skills used to reap the maximum benefit from the interview.

Listening skills

Always do the following:

Maintain eye contact with the interviewee. The need to refer to the notebook occasionally is obvious. Nevertheless, maintaining eye contact helps focus on the conversation and encourages full participation during the interview.

Focus on the content and give the delivery a lower hand.

Avoid emotional involvement. Being too emotionally involved in listening can make one hear what they want to believe, and not what is being said. One should always remain open-minded and objective.

Avoid any form of distractions. Listening is a challenging mental task and should be treated as an important element.

Stay active by asking mental questions. The gap between the rate of speech and the rate of thought of both parties can be used to compare the response times of the different candidates. The interviewer can think faster than the interviewee can respond and thus give an unpleasant response.

Non-verbal communication

This is used to analyze whether a person is not listening or not interested in the questions. It is done by simply taking note of the emotions and expressions displayed by the respondent.

Most interviewers and interviewees consider scheduling for an interview the most difficult part of the whole process of interviewing. Once an interview is scheduled, it is usually interesting and interviewers can find themselves performing tasks that they could not perform earlier due to stress and fatigue. An interview is also considered an experience from which people learn and from which they can strengthen a weak point they have when it comes to asking questions or answering questions. However, several factors are to be considered before indulging in an interview process.

Irrespective of the interview, one will be involved in, be it a job interview or a press interview; it is good to make sure that one follows certain criteria that have been set down to achieve the maximum from an interview. To begin with, setting one’s mind right and tuning their mind to what is in store for them is important. This is because as an interviewee one is likely to encounter an individual who does not give room for unnecessary time consumption. Also as an interviewer, one is likely to interview top-of-the-notch personality. Some of these people pay so much respect to their egos. A slight mistake or lack of concentration may see the interviewer lose a lifetime chance of ever getting such a chance again.

Secondly, observing humility and politeness is also important. This will allow one to ask questions more strategically and chronologically and get to make a breakthrough of getting information that might be worth the effort. Politeness is also required to make one feel obliged to the interviewee making them respond to question respectively and politely as well; it is more of a give what you want interaction.

Also in conformity with humility and politeness is confidence. However, much inferior one feels to the interviewer or interviewee, always one should be determined in whatever they ask or answer. Lack of confidence shutters chances of even making it to the question-answer part of the interview itself. Confidence confirms what one is up to and what they need when answering certain questions or even, better, asking them. However, one should learn to tune their voice’s pitch before they get wrapped with the thought that leads them to use a tone that is usually misinterpreted by the other party of the interview.

Of most importance is the introduction of the interview. This allows the involved parties to know what they are talking about and what they are answering. Failure to give an appropriate introduction can lead the respondent to be irrelevant. An introduction is backed up by background information on what the interview entails. For example, when interviewing a celebrity, the interviewers can summarize the life history, failures, and success in the introduction.

The background part allows one to narrow down to what they want to know more about. For instance, at the introductory phase of an interview, one can say this: After trying, several times Mr. Easy went down a heartbreaking twenty-four times. However, before he could give up, he gave it another shot, which proved to work out wonders in his life. Then in the background, one asks, Mr. Easy, it takes perseverance to make the such number of tries and keep failing. How did it feel back then? This appropriately sets the mind of Mr. Easy to know that he is supposed to talk of the misery stages of his career.

Allan, S. (2005). Journalism: Critical Issues . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill International.

Harcup, T. (2009). Journalism: Principles and Practice. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Kovach, B and Rosenstiel, T. (2007). The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know And the Public Should Expect . London: Three Rivers Press.

Publishing, T. (2001). Journalism( 2rd ed.). London: Crimson Publishing.

Solly, R. (2007). Journalism . London: Career FAQs Publishers.

Stephenson, D. (1998). How to Succeed in Newspaper Journalism . London: Kogan Page Publishers.

Verity, J. (2004). Succeeding at Interviews: Give Great Answers and Ask the Right Questions Edition3, revised. Oxford: How To Books Ltd.

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COMMENTS

How To Write an Interview Essay (With Example Questions)
An interview essay is a piece of writing that helps the reader understand more about the interview subject and relevant context. The purpose of an interview essay varies depending on the situation. For example, an interview essay that focuses on an individual who experienced a historical event is different from an interview essay that focuses ...
Types of Interviews in Research
Depending on the type of interview you are conducting, your questions will differ in style, phrasing, and intention. Structured interview questions are set and precise, while the other types of interviews allow for more open-endedness and flexibility. Here are some examples. Structured. Semi-structured.
Semi-Structured Interview
Semi-structured interviews are a blend of structured and unstructured types of interviews. Unlike in an unstructured interview, the interviewer has an idea of what questions they will ask. Unlike in a structured interview, the phrasing and order of the questions is not set. Semi-structured interviews are often open-ended, allowing for flexibility.
How to Write an Interview Narrative Essay [Template and Example]
Like a triangle, begin at the top of the paragraph with a narrow-focused summary of the interviewee's main message. Then, continuing the triangle analogy, expand outwards and downwards from that point. Deliver the broader context for why the interview matters. To end the essay, quote how the interviewee said goodbye.
Structured Interview
Revised on June 22, 2023. A structured interview is a data collection method that relies on asking questions in a set order to collect data on a topic. It is one of four types of interviews. In research, structured interviews are often quantitative in nature. They can also be used in qualitative research if the questions are open-ended, but ...
Writing an Interview Paper: Formatting Guide, Samples and Writing Tips
Check what a narrative interview paper structure looks like when you reach out to several people: Introduction. Paragraph #1 - the first interviewee's perspective. Paragraph #2 - the second interviewee's opinion. Paragraph #3 - the third interviewee's thoughts. Conclusion.
Types of Interviews ~ A Simple Guide & Examples
The types of interviews are structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, and unstructured interviews. Structured interviews involve the use of set questions, and these must be asked in a given order. On the other hand, unstructured interviews are flexible and feature open-ended questions. Semi-structured interviews have elements of both ...
How To Write an Interview Essay
The aim of an interview is that through using people rather than books or articles, the writer can obtain a first-person viewpoint on a subject. The interview can be related to experiences in their life or may be related to a field in which they are an expert. Clearly these types of essays require a different form of planning and research.
How to Write an Interview Essay: Complete Guide
A standard interview essay from a custom writing service can range from 2,000 to 5,000 words or up to ten pages. Individual works are usually shorter. The interview essay format will have an introduction, body segments (perspectives grouped under different subheadings), and a summary. Here's an overview of what to put in each part.
How to Write an Interview Essay: 10 Steps (with Pictures)
2. Plan an outline of the essay. The outline will depend largely on the essay format you are following, but a strong introduction, which clearly identifies your subject and the goals and focus of your interview, is always important. [8] Read over your interview notes and listen to any audio / video recordings you have.
Types of Interviews in Research and Methods
There are more types of interviews than most people think. An interview is generally a qualitative research technique that involves asking open-ended questions to converse with respondents and collect elicit data about a subject.. The interviewer, in most cases, is the subject matter expert who intends to understand respondent opinions in a well-planned and executed series of star questions ...
Types of Interviews
Types of Interviews Essay. Structured interview is an interview model that has a set of questions used by the interviewer when interviewing an interviewee (Boyd & Rosenberg, 2005). Its questions are set in a specific criterion and guideline. The structured interview gives no room to the interviewer to rephrase the questions asked.
Interviews
Types of interviews. There are many different types of interview approaches and techniques, Generally speaking, all interviews fall into one of three categories: structured, semi-structured, and depth/unstructured interviews. Structured interviews are most typically used in quantitative investigations, including survey research.In structured interviews, the interviewer presents the interviewee ...
What are the four main types of interviews?
The four most common types of interviews are: Structured interviews: The questions are predetermined in both topic and order. Semi-structured interviews: A few questions are predetermined, but other questions aren't planned. Unstructured interviews: None of the questions are predetermined. Focus group interviews: The questions are presented ...
Different Types of Interview
An interview is a conversation between the interviewee and the interviewer where information is sort from the interviewee by the interviewer through a series of questions (The 8 Major Types of Interviews, para1, n.d).
Interview Essay
Essay writing is different for everyone. Some people choose to go to the library and search for facts on a given subject, while others like to focus on gathering information through personal statements.. During this interview process, interviewers typically ask a series of interview questionnaire that their readers may want to know about. These details are either recorded or jotted down by the ...
Interviews in Social Research: Advantages and Disadvantages
Types of interview. Structured or formal interviews are those in which the interviewer asks the interviewee the same questions in the same way to different respondents. This will typically involve reading out questions from a pre-written and pre-coded structured questionnaire, which forms the interview schedule.
Types of Interview Formats and Styles
Technical. Multiple-round. Phone screen. Informational. 1. Individual. Individual interview formats typically involve only the interviewer and interviewee. Oftentimes, the individual format can encompass different interview styles involving behavioral or situational questions. Individual formats, though, are always one-on-one between the ...
Different Ways of Conducting Interviews
There are three major types of questions that an interviewer or interviewee can ask or answer—an open-end question, a closed-end question, and a hypothetical question. The open-end and closed-end questions are the most used types of questions as compared to the hypothetical ones, which breeds generalization. To ace the interview, one should ...
5 Types of Interview Questions (With Sample Answers)
5 types of interview questions. Most job interviews include one or more types of questions, including: 1. Interview questions that assess personality. Employers ask these types of interview questions to get to learn more about who the candidate is as a person and an employee. These may include questions that measure whether the candidate is ...
Writing 101: The 8 Common Types of Essays
Level Up Your Team. See why leading organizations rely on MasterClass for learning & development. Whether you're a first-time high school essay writer or a professional writer about to tackle another research paper, you'll need to understand the fundamentals of essay writing before you put pen to paper and write your first sentence.
The Four Main Types of Essay
An essay is a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. There are many different types of essay, but they are often defined in four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive essays. Argumentative and expository essays are focused on conveying information and making clear points, while narrative and ...
Common types of interview formats and styles (with tips)
Here are six common interviewing formats that hiring managers use: 1. Individual. Individual interviews are the most popular and efficient form of assessment and only involve two people, which are the recruiter and the candidate. In an individual interview, the hiring manager has a one-on-one conversation with the applicant, where they ask a ...
12 Types of Interviews You May Find in a Job Search
7 additional interview types Outside of a corporate job search, you'll find numerous other interview types that can help you gather important information about a job or industry, practice your interview skills, and more. Let's go over these different options: 1. Informational interview An informational interview gives you greater autonomy.
Preparing for Different Types of Tech Interviews
Preparing for a phone interview means preparing for the types of questions that may be asked to assess basic qualifications. "This includes refreshing skills related to specific programming languages relevant to the role, such as Python or Ruby," Bonneau said. "While technical capabilities are a primary focus, interviewers are also interested ...
What are the 4 main types of interviews?
The four most common types of interviews are: Structured interviews: The questions are predetermined in both topic and order. Semi-structured interviews: A few questions are predetermined, but other questions aren't planned. Unstructured interviews: None of the questions are predetermined. Focus group interviews: The questions are presented ...