Questions Types

Open Questions:

An open question is designed to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject's own knowledge and/or feelings; it heavily relies upon answering a question that just does not stop at the response of “NO/YES.” It is the opposite of a closed question, which encourages a short or single-word answer. Open questions are designed for the interviewee to elaborate on their answer and give in full descriptive details, Open-ended questions typically begin with words such as "Why" and "How", or phrases such as "Tell me about..." so the 5ws are the fundamental multiple choices of interviewers can pose questions, often they are not technically a question, but a statement which implicitly asks for a response. Open questions also have a negative side to them, one of which is it can be time consuming, the interviewee can start going off topic and talk about something else that wasn’t asked because an open questions allows an interviewee to express themselves freely, the question can also be flipped through the repetition of the original question, this method is affiliated with politicians in avoiding the initial question.

An example for this is the interview of David frost and Nixon, David Frost asks Nixon about the Watergate incident which Nixon continuously refused to answer and avoided the question by going off topic, talking about irrelevant issues which did not answer to David Frost question, this can be frustrating for interviewer as he wants to gain more details but the interviewee has a good strategy to keep off topic, politicians are trained to think like  journalist which allows them to easily master the way they can answer to questions they do not want to give any information about.

Closed Questions:

Closed questions are used in interviews and are usually used to get a short response or a yes or no answer from the interviewee. They invite a short focused answer; answers to closed questions can often be either right or wrong. Close questions are usually easier to answer – as they are restrictive and can be answered in a few words, an example of a closed question can be “May I help you?” or “Have you searched elsewhere?” these types of questions allows the interviewee to answer briefly, which could be a positive thing as it is Quick and require little time investment. However a closed question also can be negative as you may gain incomplete responses, not gain enough information. These brief responses could be due to the way the question is not phrased well enough or a pointless questions which doesn’t have enough quantitative or qualitative research which may lead the interviewee to simply answer yes or no because your questions isn’t clear enough for them to understand. Closed questions are ideal for Vox Pops.

Leading Questions:

 Leading Questions are phrased in a manner that tends to suggest the desired answer, such as “what do you think of the horrible effects of pollution?” This leads the interviewer to get the answer he/she wants to hear. Leading questions are generally undesirable as they result in false or slanted information. Leading questions are ideal for investigative interviews. For example: “do you have any problems with your mother” This question prompts the person to question their relationship they have with mother. In a subtle way it raises the prospect that there are problems. Whereas “tell me about your relationship with your mother” This question does not seek any judgment and there is less implication that there might be something wrong with the relationship.  

In this show Oprah Winfrey interviews mothers who killed their own children. One of the questions she asked was “what purpose does it serve to beat a 3 month old child?” this question could be considered as a leading question as it suggesting that the interviewee may had a purpose for killing her child which enables Oprah to get a full on answer from the interviewee explaining herself, it prompts the interviewee to think whenever or not she did have a purpose for killing her child.