Asking Questions - Techniques for Semistructured Interviews

Summary

Leech explains how semistructured interviews use open-ended questions to combine the depth of ethnographic interviewing with enough consistency to compare responses across participants. The article argues that what the interviewer already knows shapes how questions should be asked: too much apparent certainty can close down answers, while too little knowledge can make respondents doubt the interviewer's competence. Effective semistructured interviewing depends on rapport, active listening, flexible probes, and questions that invite respondents to explain their own categories, examples, and behind-the-scenes reasoning.

Important Keywords

• Semistructured interview: an interview style using open-ended questions that provides depth and an insider perspective while retaining enough consistency to compare responses.
• Open-ended question: a question form that invites respondents to explain in their own terms rather than select from predefined response categories.
• Rapport: convincing respondents that the interviewer is listening, understands, is interested, and wants them to continue talking.
• Probe: a follow-up prompt used to elicit more detail, examples, or explanation from a respondent.
• Elite interviewing: interviewing highly educated or highly placed respondents, where the interviewer must appear knowledgeable but still position the respondent as expert.
• Insider perspective: the respondent's own view of events, categories, and behind-the-scenes meanings.
• Content validity: the fit between interview questions and the substance the researcher actually needs to understand.

Important Concepts

• Semistructured interviews sit between unstructured conversations and closed-ended structured interviews.
• Rapport is not just comfort; it is convincing respondents that the interviewer is listening, understands, and wants them to continue.
• Interviewers should appear professional and informed, but still position the respondent as the expert on the specific topic.
• Open-ended questions help reveal categories and explanations the researcher may not have anticipated.
• Probes and follow-up questions are essential for moving beyond brief or generic answers.

Examples

• Instead of asking only closed survey-style questions, an interviewer asks a broad question and follows up with prompts like "Can you tell me more about that?" or "How did that happen?"
• In elite interviewing, the interviewer may know the public facts but asks the respondent to explain what happened behind the scenes.