I applaud your Spotlight columnist Sunetra Senior for the way she asks open questions aimed at getting her interviewees to “open up” and reveal what makes them tick. As a former journalist, now retired, I know this technique never fails to get good material out of interviewees. It’s far more productive than asking closed questions requiring only “Yes” or “No” responses, although closed questions are necessary to confirm or clarify a point.
Taking about journalistic questions, I once found myself covering an event in a factory surrounded by a sea of faces, with the manager standing beside me. Pen poised on notebook I asked him: “How many people work here?” He grinned and replied: “Only about half of them!” We both burst out laughing at his joke but after that unexpected response I always took the precaution, on similar occasions elsewhere, of asking: “How many people do you employ?”. No scope there for a witty remark! My advice to Sunetra Senior is to keep asking her splendid “open” questions and producing those personality-revealing interviews for the Spotlight page.
Rudy Otter
By email
