Set of standardized scores, questions requiring only a brief answer would be preferable.

Formal instances of informational interviewing

We shall consider only the formal instances of informational interviewing, those interviews which require careful preparation.

Procedures

Planning: When preparing for an informational interview, the first step is to decide what sort of information is to be sought. This involves two questions: what do we want to know? and how are we going to use the infOlmation? The answer to the first question dictates the subject-matter to be covered by the interview; the answer to the second detelmines the types of questiotions will be asked. From that analysns to be asked. We start, then, with a careful analysis of the topic or problem about which quesis should grow a list of topics and sub-topics which need to be covered during the interview and a subsequent list of questions covering those topics. The wording of questions should be appropriate to the ultimate use of the obtained infOlmation. Development of a news story, for example, necessitates procurement of detailed information; open ended questions thus would be the most useful type. If answers are to be rep0l1ed verbatim or coded into a set of standardized scores, questions requiring only a brief answer would be preferable.

Another decision to be made during the planning stage concerns who is to be interviewed. Occasionally circumstances will dictate that decision; if only one person possesses the information needed, that person must beinterviewed. However, if we are interested in consumer buying preferences, public voting behaviours, or other rather general categories of behaviour, we have to decide which of rather thousands of potential respondents we are going to survey. Gordol1 (1969) suggests four guidelines by which we might choose our intelviewees:

1. Who has the information we' need?

2. Who among these people is accessible-that is, which of them has the time, proximity, and so on that allow us to talk to her or him?

3. Who among the accessible informants is willing to give us the relevant information?

4. Who among the willing, accessible infonnants is most able to provide the information?

A variety of factors may affect the last-named consideration. The informant may have forgotten the information, repressed it because of its traumatic nature, distorted it because of bias or prejudice, or reached improper conclusions which affect the report. Each of these potential problems should be taken into account; where possible, the chosen respondents should have a minimum of these characteristics.