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Prompts, Not Questions: Four Techniques for Crafting Better Interview Protocols

• Published: 05 June 2021
• Volume 44 , pages 507–528, ( 2021 )

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• Tomás R. Jiménez 1 &
• Marlene Orozco 2  

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A Correction to this article was published on 05 August 2023

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We offer effective ways to write interview protocol “prompts” that are generative of the most critical types of information researchers wish to learn from interview respondents: salience of events, attributes, and experiences; the structure of what is normal; perceptions of cause and effect; and views about sensitive topics. We offer tips for writing and putting into practice protocol prompts that we have found to be effective at obtaining each of these kinds of information. In doing so, we encourage researchers to think of an interview protocol as a series of prompts, rather than a list of questions, for respondents to talk about certain topics related to the main research question(s). We provide illustrative examples from our own research and that of our students and professional colleagues to show how generally minor tweaks to typical interview prompts result in richer interview data.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our colleagues who supported this work and provided examples from their research: Emily Carian, Molly King, Tagart Sobotka, and Chloe Hart. Special thanks to Forrest Stuart for his input on several drafts. We would also like to thank the participants of the Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Nation workshop at Stanford for their comments on the manuscript.

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Jiménez, T.R., Orozco, M. Prompts, Not Questions: Four Techniques for Crafting Better Interview Protocols. Qual Sociol 44 , 507–528 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-021-09483-2

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The Ethnographic Interview

I’m about as far away from an ethnographer as you can get. I live in the heart of the United States and in the same home for over 20 years. And yet, I use ethnographic interviewing in one form or another every single week. How can it be that I’m not embedding myself into new and strange cultures, and yet I value skills that resemble those needed by an ethnographer so deeply? The answer lies in the techniques and thinking that  The Ethnographic Interview  teaches and in my work world.

I came to  The Ethnographic Interview  by way of Peter Morville’s work,  Intertwingled . He recommended it as a way to understand information architectures – and corporate cultures – more completely. I agree. All too often, the issues we have in understanding one another are about how our cultures differ, and no one has bothered to understand the unwritten meanings behind the words we use.

Requirements Gathering

Before I share some of James Spradley’s insights into ethnography, it’s important for me to cement the connection between what people do today and what ethnography is, so that it’s criticality can be fully understood. In IT, business analysts – by role or by title – seek to understand the foreign world of the business. They learn about logistics, manufacturing, marketing, accounting, and more in an effort to translate the needs of these groups for the developers and systems designers that will create IT systems to support them.

Even the experienced business analyst who knows the company and the department well must do their best to remove all of their assumptions and start fresh in understanding what the group is doing and what they need. While it’s technically impossible to remove all assumptions, because they are so good at hiding, the ethnographer’s task is to eliminate as many as possible and to test those that remain.

I wrote a course for Pluralsight some years ago, titled “Gathering Good Requirements for Developers,” where I teach a set of techniques designed to expose assumptions, test them, and make things feel more real and understandable on both sides.

The requirements gathering process, whether a part of agile design or traditional waterfall methodologies, is absolutely essential to being able to deliver what the business needs. The process of requirements gathering is ultimately a process of eliciting and understanding what the foreign culture is saying – even if that foreign culture is inside of your organization.

What is Ethnography?

An anthropologist is expected to be off in a foreign land eating strange food and spending most of their time wondering what people are saying and what the heck they’re doing so far from those they love. Ethnography is their principle work, which is the systematic study of the culture they’ve embedded themselves in. Put differently, the goal of ethnography is (according to Bronislaw Malinowski) “to grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world.”

Simply stated, it’s learning from people. However, there are several nuances. First, ethnographers invite natives to teach them. They don’t assume that they know or can learn the culture without help. Second, there are components of the culture that aren’t ever directly expressed. For instance, in the United States, the phrase “How are you?” is typically a greeting. The typical response is “I’m doing well, and you?” It doesn’t convey a real interest in the other person – until and unless it’s followed with, “I mean, really, how are you?”

If there’s one thing I’ve found that is a problem with requirements gathering, information architecture, or just working with other people, it is that we don’t truly understand. We believe we understand. We might be using the same words, but we just aren’t 100% in alignment. That’s where training in ethnography is really helpful.

Ethnographers observe behavior but inquire about the meaning. They understand objects but seek to discover the meanings that the culture assigns to these objects. They record emotions but go beyond to discover the meaning of fear, anxiety, anger, and other feelings.

In short, they dig deeper. They verify their understanding to ensure that what they believe they understand is actually right. Consider for a moment death. It’s the punctuation mark at the end of life – every life. Yet, different cultures view death differently. Some cultures keep death hidden – as is the Western point of view – while others embrace or celebrate it. Some cultures believe in reincarnation and others in an afterlife. It’s the same event, but it’s culturally very, very different.

Gary Klein explains in  Sources of Power  that we all make models in our head, and it’s these models that drive our thinking. He also shares how painful it can be to get these models to surface. The models are tacit knowledge that cannot be expressed in explicit language. In fact,  Lost Knowledge  differentiates between tacit knowledge and what’s called “deep tacit knowledge,” which are mental models and cultural artifacts of thinking that are so ingrained the person literally can’t see them.

The person the ethnographer is talking to, the informant, needs prompted to access the information they don’t know they know. A good ethnographer can tease out tacit knowledge from even the worst informants – but finding the right informants certainly makes it easier.

Indispensable Informants

If you follow agile development practices, you may notice that agile depends on a product owner who is intimately familiar with the business process that the software is being developed for. Lean Six Sigma speaks of getting to the  gemba  (Japanese for “the real place”) to really know what’s happening instead of just guessing. Sometimes this is also used to speak of the people who really know what’s going on. They do the real work.

The same concept applies to ethnographic research. You need someone who is encultured, really a part of what you’re studying. While the manager who once did the job that you’re looking to understand might be helpful, you’ll ideally get to the person who actually is still doing the work. The manager will – at some level, at least – have decided that they’re no longer a part of that group, and, because of that, they’ll lose some of their tacit knowledge about how things are done – and it will be changing underneath their knowledge anyway.

Obviously, your informant needs to not just be involved with the process currently, but they also need to have enough time. If you can’t get their time to allow them to teach you, you won’t learn much. Another key is that the person not be too analytical. As we’ll discuss shortly, it’s important that the informant be able to remain in their role of an encultured participant using their natural language rather than be performing translation for the ethnographer – as they’ll tend to do if they’re too analytical.

You can’t use even the best interviewing techniques in the world to extract information that no longer exists.

The heart of ethnography isn’t writing the report. The heart of ethnography is the interviewing and discovery process. It’s more than just asking questions. It’s about how to develop a relationship and rapport that is helpful.  The Heart and Soul of Change  speaks of therapeutic alliance and how that is one of the best predictors of therapeutic success.

Tools like those described in  Motivational Interviewing  can be leveraged to help build rapport. Obviously, motivational interviewing is designed to motivate the other person. However, the process starts with engaging, including good tips to avoid judgement and other harmful statements that may make a productive relationship impossible.

For his part, Spradley in  The Ethnographic Interview  identifies the need for respect or rapport and provides a set of questions and a set of interviewing approaches that can lead to success.

Types of Questions

At a high level, ethnographic questions fall into three broad categories – descriptive, structural, and contrast questions. These questions allow the ethnographer to dip their toes into the water of understanding, structure their understanding, and understand terms with precision.

Descriptive Questions

Descriptive questions are by far the most voluminous questions that will be asked. They form the foundation of understanding what is in the informant’s world and how they use the objects in their world. Descriptive questions fall into the following categories:

• Typical Grand Tour Questions  – Asking for a typical situation in their environment
• Specific Grand Tour Questions  – Asking for a specific time and what happened
• Guided Grand Tour Questions  – Asking to see the specific things happening in an area of the informant’s environment
• Task-Related Grand Tour Questions  – Asking the informant to explain a specific task that they do and how they do it
• Typical Mini-Tour Questions
• Specific Mini-Tour Questions
• Guided Mini-Tour Questions
• Task-Related Mini-Tour Questions
• Example Questions  – Asking for a specific example of something that the informant has answered in general
• Experience Questions  – Asking for experiences that the informant might have found interesting, relevant, or noteworthy
• Direct Language Questions  – Asking what language they use to refer to something in their environment
• Hypothetical-Interaction Questions  – Asking questions about hypothetical situations that the ethnographer creates
• Typical-Sentence Questions  – Asking what kind of sentences that would be used with a phrase

Descriptive questions allow ethnographers to amass a large amount of information, but that information is unstructured and unconnected. While it’s necessary to spend some time in this space, after a while, it will become necessary to seek to understand how the informant organizes this information.

Structural Questions

As important as building a vocabulary is, understanding the relationships between various terms is more illuminating to the structural processes that the informant uses to organize their world. We use symbols to represent things, and these symbols can be categories that contain other symbols. This is a traditional hierarchical taxonomy like one might find when doing an information architecture (see  Organising Knowledge ,  How to Make Sense of Any Mess , and  The Accidental Taxonomist ).

In truth, there are many different kinds of ways that symbols can be grouped into categories, and understanding this structure is what makes the understanding of a culture rich. Spradley proposes that there are a set of common semantic relationships that seem to occur over and over again:

Spradley proposes five kinds of structural questions designed to expose the semantic relationships of terms:

• Domain Verification Questions  – Asking whether there are different kinds of a term that the informant has shared
• Included Term Verification Questions  – Asking whether a term is in a relationship with another term
• Semantic Relationship Verification Questions  – Asking whether there is a kind of term that relates other terms or if two terms would fit together in a sentence or relationship
• Native-Language Verification Questions  – Asking whether the words spoken from the informant to the ethnographer are the words that would be used when speaking to a colleague
• Cover Term Questions  – Asking if there are different types of a particular term
• Included Term Questions  – Asking if a term or set of terms belong to another term
• Substitution Frame Questions  – Asking if there are any alternative terms that could be used in the sentence that an informant has spoken
• Card Sorting Structural Questions  – Asking informants to organize terms written on cards into categories and by relatedness. This is similar to an information architecture card sorting exercise. (See  my post and video about Card Sorting  for more.)

Descriptive questions will be interspersed with structural questions to prevent monotony and to allow the ethnographer to fill in gaps in their knowledge. Though structural questions help provide a framework to how terms relate, the relationship strength between terms isn’t always transparent. That’s why contrast questions are used to refine the understanding of what the strength of the relationship is between terms.

Contrast Questions

Sometimes you can’t see differences in the abstract. For instance, our brains automatically adapt to changing light and convert something that may look blueish or pinkish to white, because we know something (like paper) should be white, even when the current lighting makes it look abnormally blue or pink. So, too, can the hidden differences between terms be obscured until you put them right next to each other. That’s what contrast questions do. They put different terms side-by-side, so they can be easily compared.

The kinds of contrast questions are:

• Contrast Verification Questions  – Asking to confirm or disconfirm a difference in terms
• Directed Contrast Questions  – Asking about a known characteristic of a term and how other terms might contrast on that characteristic
• Dyadic Contrast Questions  – Asking the informant to identify the differences between two terms
• Triadic Contrast Questions  – Asking the informant to identify which one of three terms is least like the other two
• Contrast Set Sorting Questions  – Asking the informant to contrast an entire set of terms at the same time
• Twenty Questions Game  – The ethnographer selects a term from a set and the informant asks a set of yes/no questions of the ethnographer until they discover the term. This highlights the hidden ways that informants distinguish terms. (This is similar to techniques like  Innovation Games , where the games are designed to reveal hidden meanings.)
• Rating Questions  – Asking questions about the relative values placed on different terms – along dimensions like easiest/most difficult and least/most interesting, least/most desirable, etc.

The sheer number of types of questions can seem overwhelming at first. However, many of these forms flow automatically if you develop a genuine interest in the informant and their culture. Still, sometimes it’s hard to try to learn a new language and think about what’s the next question that you need to ask to keep the conversation moving.

Multiple Languages

In the case of an anthropologist who is working with a brand new culture, it could be that they’re learning a whole new language – literally. However, in most cases, it’s not that the language is completely different and new to the ethnographer. In most cases, it’s the use of the terms that are different. Just experiencing the difference between UK English and American English can leave someone a bit confused. A rubber in England is an eraser in the US, and a cigarette in the US is a fag in the UK. While both are English, the meaning and expectations of the word are quite different.

We often forget how we speak differently in a profession. A lexicon – special language – develops around industries that aren’t a part of the general consciousness. It’s the ethnographer’s job to discover not only that lexicon but also what the words mean to the rest of us.

Monday 6 July 2020

Different types of interview questions.

• Open-ended questions : "relevant and meaningful" which "invite thoughtful, in-depth responses that elicit whatever is salient to the interviewee", not the interviewer (Patton, 2014, p. 631)... which is why we need all the following options to create a sound set of interview questions. Open-ended questions "have no definitive response and contain answers that are recorded in full" (Gray, 2004, p. 194)
• Grand Tour questions : these are large, sweeping, general questions asking the interviewee to describe the 'terrain' of their experience, where we learn "native terms about [the] cultural scenes" we are seeking to understand (Spradley, 1979, p. 86). Grand tour questions can be scoped to focus on "space, time, process, a sequence of events, people, activities or objects" (Spradley, 1979, p. 87). The same approach can be used in smaller, 'mini' grand tours. There are a number of types of grand - or mini - tour question sub-types:
• Typical , e.g., "Could you describe a typical day at the office?" (Spradley, 1979, p. 87)
• Specific , e.g., "Tell me what you did yesterday, from the time you got to work until you left?" (Spradley, 1979, p. 87)
• Guided , e.g., "Could you show me around the office?" (Spradley, 1979, p. 87)
• Task-related (Spradley, 1979), e.g., Could you compile the report and show me what you do where? This can lead to clarifiers
• Clarifiers : questions such as "What are you doing now?" and "what is this?" can be used to prompt in Grand tour questions, particularly in Task-related questions (Spradley, 1979, p. 87)
• Native language questions : "are designed to minimize the influence of [interviewee's] translation competence", where we ask "How would you refer to it?" about making typing mistakes of a secretary to check our understanding of a particular act, role, person or process, they might answer "I would call them typos" (Spradley, 1979, p. 89)
• Prompts : are short questions to the interviewee so they refine the initial answer, and "sharpen their thoughts to provide what can be critical definitions or understandings" (Guest et al., 2012, p. 220). There are a number of sub-types:
• Direct Prompts : these are where the "interviewer asks clearly, 'What do you mean when you say X?' or 'Can you give an example of Y?' Probes may also be statements: 'Tell me more about that,' or 'Explain that to me a little bit'" (Guest et al., 2012, p. 220).
• Indirect prompts : these keep the interview moving by keeping "the interviewee talking and encourage further explanation without asking another question". These might be non-verbal, such as head nodding or smiling; or verbal, such as "mmm hmm", or "yes" (Guest et al., 2012, p. 219).
• Silent prompts : "just remaining quiet and waiting for an [interviewee] to continue" (Bernard, 2011, p. 162). Although Guest et al., suggest this is an indirect prompt (2012), I think that silence is more powerful a tool than being only an indirect prompt: silence can convey camaraderie, empathy, reminiscence, unfinished business, waiting, and create a void that most will step forward to fill.
• Echo prompts : there are "particularly useful when an informant is describing a process, or an event. 'I see. The goat’s throat is cut and the blood is drained into a pan for cooking with the meat. Then what happens?' This probe is neutral and doesn’t redirect the interview. It shows that you understand what’s been said so far" (Bernard, 2011, p. 162).
• Closed ended-questions : where the answer is dichotomous (yes, or no), or some form of 'fixed' choice answers via an option list or a Likert scale. These questions are most often used in surveys (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2008), but can be useful to get people started on a topic, to end a topic, or to provide a particularly structured answer that enables the interviewer to transition into a new area. Closed-ended questions tend to "restrict the richness of alternative responses, but are easier to analyse." (Gray, 2004, p. 195)
• Bernard, H. R. (2011). Research Methods in Anthropology Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (5th ed.). AltaMira Press
• Gray, D. E. (2004). Doing Research in the Real World . SAGE Publications Ltd.
• Guest, G., Namey, E. E., & Mitchell, M. L. (2012). Collecting Qualitative Data: A field manual for applied research . SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and Evaluation Methods (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Spradley, J. P. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
• Teddlie, C., & Tashakkori, A. (2008). Foundations of Mixed Methods Research: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches in the Social and Behavioral Sciences . SAGE Publications, Inc.

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6 mistakes when crafting interview questions.

March 6, 2022 2022-03-06

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User interviews are a fantastic method to uncover information about your users’ experiences, backgrounds, needs, and desires. That being said, writing interview questions requires some thought and attention. Questions that might be fit for a questionnaire are not always appropriate for a user interview. And poorly constructed questions can confuse participants or lead to inaccurate reporting of thoughts, feelings, needs, and desires and, hence, result in invalid insights. This article highlights 6 common mistakes in drafting interview questions and suggests how to improve them.

In This Article:

#1 starting with questions that should be asked in a screener survey, #2 asking only questions about typical behaviors, #3 asking hypothetical questions, #4 using clarifying questions that introduce an interpretation, #5 asking compound questions, #6 asking ambiguous questions.

Some new interviewers want to know many facts about their participants and end up with an interview guide full of closed questions . For example, imagine that we’re conducting research on people’s experiences cooking at home. It can be tempting to ask lots of questions like these at the beginning of your interview:

• How often do you cook?
• Do you have any dietary restrictions?
• Have you tried a meal-kit service before?
• How often do you shop for ingredients?

In the context of a user interview, the questions above would be considered closed questions, in that there are only a few possible responses to each of these questions. (Of course, some participants might interpret closed questions as open-ended questions and offer further explanation). The problem with having many closed questions like these at the beginning of the interview is that they don’t allow participants to share stories about their experiences and they hamper your ability to build rapport with your participant. The other issue with asking closed questions instead of open-ended ones is that you don’t learn things that you didn’t think to ask !

If it’s important to ask these closed questions to direct the focus of the interview, then incorporate them into your screener questionnaire . The responses will help you tailor your interview guide or understand where emphasis should be placed in the interview. Remember that for any user research study, you have a strict budget for time spent with your participants . (And for unmoderated methods like surveys, users will spend very little time on your study.) Therefore, you should allocate this limited time to the most important research questions and to collecting data that couldn’t be gathered more easily with simpler methods.

There’s nothing wrong with asking some closed questions in your interviews — in fact, they’re needed to get detail and provide clarification into things participants are sharing with you. But it's much better to start by asking open-ended questions that allow participants to share some of their experiences. Such questions also set the stage for a less structured communication style and prime participants to later share details. Example questions include:

• Tell me about a time when you cooked a meal for yourself.
• Tell me about the last time you cooked something.
• Tell me about a time when you cooked a new recipe.

Another mistake some new interviewers make is to ask only about typical behavior. For example, consider the following questions:

• How do you normally decide what to eat?
• Which utensils do you typically use?
• What’s your typical meal-preparation process?

Asking only about typical behavior prevents you from gaining in-depth, reliable information — what people typically do (if there is such a thing) and what they think they typically do may be different things! Moreover, responses to such questions will not capture participants’ behaviors that are very much dependent on contextual factors. It’s much better to ask about specific examples than to ask them to describe what they think is typical.

That being said, it’s often customary for the interviewer to introduce a grand-tour question at the beginning of the interview. Note that this question does ask about typical behavior. Some examples of a grand-tour question are:

• Walk me through what a typical day in your home looks like.
• Walk me through what a typical meal looks like in your home.
• Tell me about a typical day in your office.

A grand-tour question at the beginning of an interview is like setting the scene for a story: we have a preview of the landscape that we can use to build upon throughout the interview. Once we’ve asked the grand-tour question, we move on and ask about specific examples, like those we’ve covered already in #1.

Sometimes interviewers introduce questions that ask the participant to imagine a future experience, choice, or situation, and ask how the participant might respond. These are hypothetical questions. Consider the questions below:

• If you chose to use a meal-kit service, why might that be?
• If there was a product that could help you make new meals from scratch, would you use it?

The problem with this kind of question is that people are bad at predicting their future behavior or choices — but they’ll likely have a good answer for you! If we want to understand people’s real choices, desires, and needs, we need to ask about real experiences and choices — not imagined future ones. This might mean recruiting the right people: people who have had the experiences you are looking to learn about.

Often, when we hear users describe their past actions, thoughts, or feelings, it’s tempting to start hypothesizing out loud why they said or did something, like in the following examples:

• Did you choose that meal because it was easy to prepare?
• Was it to save time that you ordered the meal-kit service?
• Was that because you liked the website that you chose that recipe?

While these questions seem fairly innocent, especially when the hypotheses all seem reasonable, they are, in fact, leading the participants towards a certain response. For this reason, avoid asking questions that use the word ‘because.’ When people are presented with leading questions , they’re more likely to agree with the question or succumb to some kind of priming effect . Instead, it’s much better to ask:

• Tell me why you chose that meal.
• What made you decide to order the meal kit service?
• What made you choose that recipe ?

Compound questions (or double-barreled questions) contain more than one question at the same time. For example:

• Tell me what you decided to cook, and why.
• Tell me about your journey into cooking and your experience at culinary school.
• What things made you interested in cooking and good at it?

While these questions are common in surveys, they’re not a good idea to ask in interviews. This is because participants have to store the question in their working memory while they answer part of the question, which is hard to do. Participants may incorrectly remember the question, or only remember part of it. Your participant may also feel silly asking you what the original question was. Instead, keep questions short and concise, and don’t ask people to tell you what they did and why; that’s what followup and probing questions are for!

Sometimes, interviewers ask questions that are so broad that they become ambiguous, causing participants to interpret them incorrectly or ask for clarification. For example:

• Can you share with me the environment that you cook in?
• Tell me about your cooking habits.
• Tell me about your cooking experience.

These questions can result in participants responding with questions like “What do you mean by the environment?”, “Do you mean how frequently I cook, or how I cook?”, “Do you mean how much experience I have, or how much I like cooking?”.

When devising questions, it’s important to think about how they could be interpreted. Taking time to pilot your interview guide with a participant can also help you understand if the questions you’re asking are interpreted incorrectly or need clarification.

Devising strong interview questions makes a lot of difference in the resulting data we collect. When in doubt, pilot your interviews to make sure you’re gathering useful data and your questions are understood correctly.

To learn more about mastering interviews, take our full-day course, User Interviews , or our 5-day course, Qualitative Research Series .

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USC Dornsife College Of Letters Arts and Sciences

University of southern california, center for religion and civic culture.

• 1 What methodologies can I use to study religious…
• 2 Is it possible to study religion objectively?
• 3 What are the guidelines for objective, reliable and…
• 4 What are the advantages and disadvantages of studying…
• 5 How do you choose and gain access to…
• 6 Why should I use interviews in my research?
• 7 Whom should I interview?
• 8 How do I prepare for an interview?
• 9 What are typical interview questions?
• 10 What are some techniques and strategies for interviewing?
• 11 How do I analyze my interview data?
• 12 What is “participant observation”?
• 13 What data do you collect in participant observation?
• 14 What are the ethical considerations of fieldwork?
• 15 How do I apply social science theoretical frameworks…
• 16 How might a journalist and a social scientist…
• 17 How do I take good photography, video or…
• 18 What research can be done during the COVID-19…
• 19 Extra Resources
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Report What are typical interview questions?

Nalika gajaweera and andrew johnson, biographical questions:.

Typically, a good way to start an interview is by beginning with a biographical or a life-history question. For example, you can ask them about their own spiritual or religious upbringing.

“Grand Tour” questions:

These can help you get a good sense of how the individual is connected with the group you are studying and how they engage with the group and its practice. For example:

• How did you get involved in this congregation?
• What are the different duties and responsibilities that you have as a volunteer?
• What is a regular service like?

Guided tour question:

This kind of question allows you to obtain specific information about an issue or topic. For example: Can you describe to me the steps involved in “waking the bell” in the Thich Nhat Hahn tradition ?

Long descriptive question:

These questions let the interviewee give rich details answers about issues you are interested in. For example:

• In what ways does this group participate, if at all, in the local community?
• What was it like growing up as part of this community?

Nalika Gajaweera was a senior research analyst with the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture through 2023.

Andrew Johnson is a contributing fellow with the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture.

Studying Faith: Qualitative Methodologies for Studying Religious Communities

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Educational Research Basics by Del Siegle

Long interview.

The first step of the long qualitative interview begins with an exhaustive review of the literature.

Literature reviews…are not simple exercises in data collection. They are…critical undertakings in which the investigator exercises a constant skepticism. They are, in fact, a kind of qualitative analysis. They search out the conscious and unconscious assumptions of scholarly enterprises. They determine how these assumptions force the definition of problems and findings. The good literature review is a critical process that makes the investigator the master, not the captive, of previous scholarship…[It is a] review and “deconstruction” of the scholarly literature. (McCracken, 1988, p. 31)

The literature

• helps define the problems to be studied and helps assess data
• aids in the construction of interview questions.

The second step involves a self-examination.

The object of this step is to give the investigator a more detailed and systematic appreciation of his or her personal experience with the topic of interest. It calls for the minute examination of this experience. The investigator must inventory and examine the associations, incidents, and assumptions that surround the topic in his or her mind. (p. 32)

This cultural review

• helps identify cultural categories and relationships that become the basis of question formation
• prepares the investigator for the “rummaging” that will occur during data analysis
• “distances” the investigator. “Only by knowing the cultural categories and configurations that the investigator uses to understand the world is he or she in a position to root these out of the terra firma of familiar expectation. This clearer understanding of one’s vision of the world permits a critical distance from it…The investigators experiences and biases are the “very stuff of understanding and explication” (p. 32).

The third step involves developing a questionnaire.

The final questionnaire…will consist in a set of biographical questions followed by a series of question areas. Each of these will have a set of grand-tour questions with floating prompts at the ready. It will also consist in planned prompting in the form of “contrast,” “category,” “special incident,” and “auto-driving” questions. With this questionnaire in hand, the investigator has a rough travel itinerary with which to negotiate the interview. It does not specify precisely what will happen at every stage of the journey…but it does establish a clear sense of the direction of the journey and the ground it will eventually cover. (p. 37)

Begin an interview by demonstrating that the interviewer is a “benign, accepting, curious (but not inquisitive) individual who is prepared and eager to listen to virtually any testimony with interest” (p. 38). Once the preliminaries are completed, deploy grand-tour questions followed by “floating prompts.” Follow this with planned prompts:

• special incident
• auto-driving

Be alert for

• impression management
• topic avoidance
• deliberate distortion
• minor misunderstanding
• outright incomprehension

The fourth and final phase of the long interview is the most demanding. It is the analysis of the data.

The object of analysis is to determine the categories, relationships, and assumptions that informs the respondent’s view of the world in general and the topic in particular. The investigator comes to this undertaking with a sense of what the literature says ought to be there, a sense of how the topic at issue is constituted in his or her own experience, and a glancing sense of what took place in the interview itself. The investigator must be prepared to use all of this material as a guide to what exists there, but he or she must also be prepared to ignore all of this material to see what none of it anticipates. If the full powers of discovery inherent in the qualitative interview are to be fully exploited, the investigator must be prepared to glimpse and systematically reconstruct a view of the world that bears no relation to his or her own view or the one evident in the literature. (p. 42)

….. McCracken, G. (1988), The long interview. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Del Siegle, PhD [email protected]

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Schönbrunn Grand Tour question - Vienna Forum

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We are planning to do the Schönbrunn grand tour, which includes an audio guide. We are not clear if this is a self guided tour, or a guided tour while listening to the audio guide in you language. Thank you.

2 replies to this topic

Self-guided tour with pre-recorded audio on a listening device.

‘Thank you. There is also a guided tour “Maria Theresia”. Similar one hour time - can’t tell if it misses any highlights of the Grand Tour??

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Before you book: how to check tour bus safety ratings

ABC15’s Investigation into a deadly tour bus crash at the Grand Canyon last summer has raised questions about the safety of tour buses, including how to check the safety of your bus company.

Before booking a bus trip, you should check the federal database for violations and the bus company’s safety rating. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration tracks safety ratings for every charter bus service in the country.

“When people and families book excursions you hope and pray that the people making sure that things are safe do their jobs,” said Angela Tirschman, one the passengers on the deadly tour bus crash. “They didn't hold up their end of the bargain.”

The Grand Canyon tour bus driver admitted to nodding off before the collision, and investigators found the bus should have been out of service prior to the crash due to a tire “that was not within regulation,” according to a newly released law enforcement report into the August 1, 2023, rollover crash.

ABC15 is committed to finding the answers you need and holding those accountable.

Submit your news tip to [email protected]

20-year-old Landri Burgart was killed in the crash, and eight other people were seriously injured including Angela’s son Kyan.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety final crash report also found the tour bus driver, “should not have been driving due to being over hours.”

Federal safety records also showed the tour bus company involved in the deadly crash, American Transportation Systems, based in Long Beach, California, had enough safety violations to exceed federal safety thresholds subjecting the company to possible prioritized intervention action and roadside inspection.

“It makes me question signing up to do things like that again, which is really sad,” Angela said.

Experts also recommend asking lots of questions before buying a ticket on a tour bus and start by asking the name of the company operating the tour bus. Then ask for their DOT number. You can use that information to search the federal website and find the company’s safety information, including a breakdown of violations and ratings by category.

There are other things riders can look for before boarding a bus. Look at the tires for any obvious signs of wear or concern. Also, check exit doors to make sure they open and don’t be afraid to ask how many hours the driver has been behind the wheel or to see their commercial driver’s license.

American Transportation Systems previously declined ABC15’s request for an on-camera interview and did not provide comment about the final crash report.

An attorney representing the company said the matter is in litigation and, “we respect those that were injured and the family and friends that have been affected.”

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Rafael Nadal evaluates his progress and addresses French Open question ahead of Italian Open

Rafael Nadal gave a positive assessment of the progress he has made since his comeback ahead of his appearance at the 2024 Italian Open.

The tennis icon also expressed that he “cannot predict what kind of emotions” he would have at this year’s French Open if he plays.

Nadal will face Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs, the world No 108, in the opening round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome on Thursday.

The Spaniard, who will turn 38 in June, is likely playing the Italian Open for the last time and could soon also make his final appearance at Roland Garros.

Since winning his 14th French Open title and 22nd Grand Slam crown overall at the 2022 edition of Roland Garros, Nadal has been plagued by injury issues. He won three matches in a row for the first time since the 2022 US Open at the recent Madrid Masters.

READ MORE:  The 6 men to beat Rafael Nadal at the Italian Open with Novak Djokovic only man to achieve feat more than once

In his pre-tournament press conference in Rome, Nadal was asked what his emotions would be going into this year’s French Open.

“I can’t have a clear answer. First of all, I want to play Rome. That’s the tournament that I am today,” said the Spaniard.

“I don’t think after that. If after that I feel ready to play Roland Garros, I cannot predict what kind of emotions I going to have there.

“I just want to enjoy every day. I am enjoying playing tennis, by the way. Always depending on my body how far I can keep going in terms of timings, no?

“I am happy doing what I’m doing. When I’m talking about retirement, [it] is not because I’m not happy anymore playing tennis or I’m not feeling myself competitive enough.

“That’s not the case. It’s about the body was not able to play weeks in a row, was not able to allow me practise and enjoy the practices in a daily basis. Then arrive a moment that don’t make sense.

“If you’re not able to do the things the proper way in your daily basis, you are not able to enjoy because of the pain and the injuries in your daily basis, it’s almost impossible to have success or to keep fighting for the things that really motivate me, no?

“But now is my third week on the tour almost in a row, so… It’s a good moment, even if the results are not what used to be. But I am increasing my feeling, my level. Let’s see. I want to keep going.”

The former world No 1 also gave his evaluation of his improvement in terms of tennis and fitness since making his return to action in Barcelona last month.

“Well, it’s something that is not every day the same. Is not a line like this (steadily up), it’s a little bit like this (up and down). Even after Barcelona, I had some tough moments in Madrid. Even here the first day,” Nadal explained.

“But in a general perspective, the line is going up, without a doubt. So yeah, I mean, happy to be today where I am. because one month ago, for me was almost impossible to think that I will be able to play in Barcelona, then in Madrid, and now being here in Rome.

“Things are happening. [It] is true that I was able to accept the challenge, accept that some moments I was not able to push the way that I wanted to push.

“Doing the things the proper way and trying to avoid a lot of risks in terms of pushing a lot on the matches, I was able to keep moving. Madrid was a good test for me playing I think two days in a row, one match over three hours.

“My feelings are better always. In terms of tennis, too. Why not? I am here to try my best. Tomorrow is a start. All the matches are tough for me today and difficult and more unpredictable than what the matches used to be for me, especially on clay.

“I accept that role. I accept that challenge. I am excited about the way that I can be able to play if I keep working the proper way and my body allow me.”

READ MORE:  Jimmy Connors weighs in on the prospect of Rafael Nadal retiring this year

Sheikh Ahmed addresses the question of an Emirates IPO

Sheikh Ahmed provided an insight into the decision-making process surrounding the question of an Emirates IPO

With frequent developments around a probable Etihad Airways initial public offering (IPO) this year, the same is being asked about the UAE’s flag carrier: Emirates. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates addressed this question during a media briefing at the Arabian Travel Market on Tuesday.

Sheikh Ahmed speaking to Dubai Eye 103.8 at the Emirates stand, acknowledged that an IPO by Emirates is a question he is frequently asked about. “I think a lot of people, even friends, ask me when. I always revert to my classical answer and even though people expect me to know as I am with the airline, when it comes to the decision of the IPO, it’s not me who decides that,” he said.

He explained that the decision was not his to make, “It’s a Government of Dubai decision and they would be the one to tell me when.” He added that he would go ahead with an Emirates IPO if he was told to do so. “If they tell me to do it I will do it.”

Upon being asked further if this was being discussed, Sheikh Ahmed said, “I did not hear anything about it.”

Emirates at Al Maktoum International Airport

Sheikh Ahmed additionally took questions around the recently revealed Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) expansion plans and operational move for Emirates to the new airport. Sheikh Ahmed said on Tuesday that the airline would move its operations to the new passenger terminal at DWC in 2034 and “it will be in one go”,

“I think you will wake up one day and see the terminal is open, it is tested and you will see your Emirates flight from Al Maktoum [airport],” he said.

The Emirates Group chief explained that the fleet expansion for both Emirates and flydubai require a new facility with expanded capacity to accommodate flights at the gates and the parking. “We are confident that without this airport, Dubai will be going backward … having all those aircraft coming to the fleet, they are signed orders, [means] I need gates and parking,” he said.

Emirates is the world’s largest airline by international traffic with a fleet of 260 planes.

Listen to his interaction at the Arabian Travel Market below.

Read: Dubai airport passenger numbers to exceed 90 million in 2024

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Saudi Arabia’s Rasan to lists 30% stake on local bourse

New photos of uae’s gaming destination: wynn al marjan island, how mastercard is driving financial inclusion in the middle east, atm 2024: uae reveals details of gcc’s schengen-styled ‘grand tours’ visa, latest issue.

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Former Kentucky Basketball Coach John Calipari’s Lexington Mansion Lands on the Market for $4M

Longtime University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari has listed his Lexington, KY , home for $3,990,000.

He just switched jobs, landing at the University of Arkansas last month. So Calipari is ready to part with his 9,615-square-foot, five-bedroom manor on 1.2 acres in the Bluegrass State.

The property last changed hands for $2.3 million in 2009, the same year he was hired by UK’s famed basketball program.

(Realtor.com)

With grand proportions and stately design, this traditional Southern estate is gated and protected behind brick-and-iron fencing. The elegant foyer flows to formal dining and living rooms, where a large stone fireplace, decorative arches, and columns elevate the aesthetic.

Nearby, the gourmet kitchen boasts a sizable island and room for a breakfast table.

The first-level primary bedroom offers dual bathrooms and closets. Along with four other en suite bedrooms on the second floor, there’s a bonus room on the third level. It could be used as a playroom, yoga studio, or art space.

The basement has its own kitchenette, workout room, and projection TV for family movie nights. Outside, a saltwater pool, pool house, and basketball half-court await. A three-car garage and two separate land parcels complete the package.

Calipari coached at Kentucky from 2009 through the 2023-2024 season, winning the NCAA national championship in 2012. While he’s now taken charge of the Arkansas Razorbacks squad, Calipari also coached for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets from 1996-1999.

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Deep Diving Into The Madrid Open 2024 (Tennis) Prize Money Pool

I n the run-up to the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, every tennis player has started taking the ATP and the WTA Tour events seriously. The ongoing event in Spain provides a perfect platform for them to brush their skills.

One of the most prestigious tournaments in the world of tennis outside of the Grand Slams, the Madrid Open saw a host of stars partaking in the competition. However, it is not just the honour that the players are interested in — the tournament offers substantial payouts.

Here is a quick look at the details of the Madrid Open 2024 tennis tournament:

• Date: 22 April – 5 May
• Venue: Madrid, Spain
• Where to watch:  Tennis TV

Join us in taking a close look at the prize money pool on offer for the players at the Madrid Open 2024, the date and venue of the finals of the tennis tournament, and more.

Everything you need to know about the Madrid Open 2024

A brief history of madrid open’s legacy.

Held for the first time in 2002, the Madrid Open will celebrate its 22nd edition this year. This tournament is a part of both the ATP Tour (ATP Masters 1000 tournament) and the WTA Tour (WTA 1000 event).

Traditionally, the Madrid Open is played on clay courts. The only exception to this happened in 2012 when the tournament was held on blue clay courts.

One of the sport’s all-time greats, Rafael Nadal holds the record for the most championships in the men’s singles category (five titles). In the women’s singles division, Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova has won the most titles (three).

Jannik Sinner’s Net Worth: Looking At The Young Italian Tennis Star’s Wealth, Earnings And More

A look at the richest tennis players in the world in 2024: roger federer, serena williams and more, how much prize money is on offer at the madrid open 2024 tennis tournament.

According to a report by  Perfect Tennis , the total prize money pool on offer for the winners of the Madrid Open 2024 stands at over USD 16.6 million (around MYR 79.1 million) . The figure saw a 1.1 per cent increase from 2023.

From this prize money pool, the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour side holds a total prize money of USD 8.4 million. Meanwhile, the amount on the Women’s Tennis Association Tour side is nearly USD 8.3 million.

Here’s how the prize money pool is divided in each category:

ATP singles: 

Winners:  USD 1.03 million

Runners-up: USD 545,198

Semi-finalists: USD 302,884

WTA singles:

Winners:  USD 1.11 million

Runners-up: USD 589,099

Semi-finalists: USD 327,279

ATP doubles:

Winners:  USD 416,920

Runners-up: USD 220,723

Semi-finalists: USD 118,536

WTA doubles: 

Winners:  USD 450,532

Runners-up: USD 238,464

Semi-finalists: USD 128,064

A look at the date and venue details for the finals of the Madrid Open 2024

The Madrid Open 2024, which kick-started on Monday, 22 April, will conclude with the finals on Sunday, 5 May.

Like the rest of the matches of the Madrid Open 2024, the finals of the tennis tournament will be held at the La Caja Mágica in Manzanares Park, San Fermín. The stadium offers a capacity of around 12,500 spectators.

Where to watch the Madrid Open 2024 finals

Tennis fans can live stream the finals of the Madrid Open 2024 from the comfort of their couch on Tennis TV , the official global broadcaster of the tournament.

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(Main and Featured Images Credits: Mutua Madrid Open)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

– What is the prize money for the Madrid Open 2024 tennis tournament? 

The total prize money pool of the Madrid Open 2024 tennis tournament stands at USD 16.6 million (around MYR 79.1 million).

– When is the final of the Madrid Open 2024 tennis tournament? 

The Madrid Open 2024 will conclude with its finals on Sunday, 5 May.