Interview refers to purposeful conversation through face-to-face interactions.

• It follows a basic question-answer format.

• First, the objectives of the interview are set.

• The interviewer then prepares on interview format.

• There is a basic format which is followed, regardless of the interview's purpose; i.e., an interview has three stages :

— Opening

— The body

— The closing

A. Opening of the Interview:

1. In involves establishing report between the two communicators, so that the interview becomes comfortable.

2. Generally, the interviewer starts the conversation and does most of the talking at the outset. This serves two functions:

(a) It establishes the goal of the interview

(b) It gives the interviewee time to become comfortable with the situation and the interviewer.

B. Body of the Interview:

1. This is the heart of the process.

2. In this stage, the interviewer asks questions in an attempt to generate information and data that are required to fulfil/required for the purpose.

Sequence of Questions:

To accomplish the purpose of an interview, the interviewer prepares set of questions called a schedule for different domains or categories he/she wants to cover.

1. To form the schedule, the interviewer must first decide on the domain/ categories under which information is to be generated. For example for questions used in job interview (box 9.5), the interviewer selected various categories such as not use of the organization last worked for, satisfaction with the past job, views on product etc.

2. These domains/categories and the questions within them are formed ranging from easy to answer to difficult to answer.

C. Closing of the Interview:

While closing the interview, the interviewer should :

1. Summarise what she/he has been able to gather.

2. Give a chance to the interviewee to ask questions or offer comments. One should end with a discussion of the next step to be taken.