BY BRITNEY DENNISON

You sit down in your seat. Your palms are sweaty. Your mouth is dry. The person sitting across from you takes out a notepad and a pen. The only thought running through your mind: “Please, oh please, let me say the right thing.”

The interviewer purses her lips.

“Tell me about yourself.”

Odds are, you’ve been asked this question once or twice before—maybe by a new acquaintance or during a job interview. Perhaps you were the interviewer doing the asking.

Regardless of the circumstance, it’s a terrible question.

The interviewee is left wondering what the right answer is. Could you imagine if you said, “Well, I’m 26 years old, my favourite Game of Thrones characters are Tyrion and Daenerys, and I dislike Brussels sprouts—a lot.”

It’s probably not the answer the interviewer was looking for. Oh well. How were you supposed to know?

According to Julian Sher, senior producer of CBC’s the fifth estate: “If you ask a stupid question, you’ll get a stupid answer.”

Last week, I attended a presentation given by Sher on investigative interviewing at the Canadian Association of Journalists annual conference. He began with an anecdote about his daughter.

While on assignment in Somalia, Sher called home to let his family know he was okay. His daughter, who was four at the time, answered the phone.

“I said, ‘Whatcha doing? This is daddy. I’m in Africa,’” he explained. “There’s this pause, and she goes, ‘I’m talking to you on the phone.’ Of course I meant, ‘How was the day? And what are you doing?’ But I asked, ‘What are you doing?’ and she answered.”

According to Sher, If you’re not getting the answers you want, then blame yourself. Bad answers are never Stephen Harper’s fault. They’re never the fault of your four-year-old-daughter. You just need to be asking the right questions.

So how do you ask better questions? I don’t pretend to have all the answers; everyone’s interviewing style is unique, as it should be. But here are some good ground rules to begin with.

Don’t ask closed questions (unless you want a yes/no answer)

Sher’s first rule is also the most well-known: don’t ask closed questions. In other words, don’t ask a question with a “yes” or “no” answer. During his presentation, he gave an amusing example.

“Somebody asked Gorbachev, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, in one word, how would you describe the Russian economy?’ He said, ‘Good.’

“Then they said, ‘In two words?’ He said, ‘Not good.’”

The lesson: don’t limit a person’s answer. That is not the purpose of an interview.

Of course, there are exceptions. Sher points to Oprah’s famous interview with Lance Armstrong after he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. She began the interview by intentionally breaking the rule and asking Armstrong to only respond to her pointed inquiries by either saying “yes” or “no.”

The problem with this tactic is that sometimes, people you are interviewing won’t cooperate. Politicians are notorious for this.

Sher gave this example:

“You’ll say, ‘Mr. Harper, are you going to go ahead with the pipeline?’ And they never answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ They’ll say, ‘Well, this is a complicated issue.’ Or you’ll say, “Mr. Ford, have you smoked crack cocaine?’ And he’ll go, ‘Well, what do you mean by smoke? What do you mean by crack?’”

The takeaway is to avoid closed questions unless you preface them by saying, “Please only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the following questions.” And only ask them if you’re sure that’s the type of answer you want.

Don’t give escape routes

Sher’s second rule is probably the one most journalists struggle with. The most classic example of giving your interview subject an escape route is the double-barrelled question.

For example, if you ask, “Were you guilty of stealing taxpayers’ money, or were you just confused and overworked?” The interviewee, according to Sher, will avoid the questions and grab onto the statement like a life preserver. In this case the person might answer, “You’re right. I was so confused.”

This answer is in no way fulfilling, but it’s also entirely your fault. You gave them an out. You let them off the hook. Sher said there is one no-fail way to avoid this:

“The question mark is the end of a sentence,” he explained. “It’s not a comma. It’s a period—end of sentence. If you’re talking—you’re doing an interview—and a question mark comes out of your mouth, your lips should then close.”

Watch this example of Charlie Rose interviewing Obama (skip to 15:00). The question Rose wants answered is, “Why don’t you do what the Syrian rebels want you to do?”

Obama didn’t want to answer the question. Instead, he latches on to the second half of Rose’s double-barrelled question and starts talking about his objectives for Syria.

The worst question is not asking one

Statements are not questions.

“Usually what we try to do as journalists is we try to take a statement and fake it as a question by inflecting our voice at the end of the sentence,” Sher said, “as if that suddenly makes it a question.”

If you are doing an interview, avoid making statements altogether. Also, don’t voice your opinions or get into a debate, unless there is a journalistic purpose for it that will add value.

The example Sher gave is one of the most famous quotes in Canadian politics; it comes at the end of an interview that has, in Sher’s words, gone off the rails.

For God’s sake, listen

This one seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many interviewers don’t actually listen to what their subjects have to say.

“I’ve been at the other end of interviews, and I am stunned at how I try to plant certain words in my answers so it will lead to the next question, and people just don’t listen,” said Sher.

“I am convinced I could say, ‘Well, of course I was concerned about the Hell’s Angels, but they’re nothing compared to a risk of a Martian invasion.’ And the interviewer right away would say, ‘Okay, and tell us about how serious cocaine trafficking is.’ They don’t listen.”

Listening can mean several things. Listening for language is important, because language can uncover emotion and accountability.

“For example, when someone says, ‘I am angry,’ they now own the word angry. You don’t have to debate it. So you can continue by saying, ‘Why are you angry?’ Or, ‘What makes you angry?’

“They can’t then say, ‘Oh, well, I’m not really angry.’ They’ve used it. . . . The minute somebody uses a word, run with it, because they made it fair territory.”

All interviews are only one question

If you could only ask one question, what would it be? What is your purpose? Are you looking for character, context, emotion, or simply a conclusion in your interview? Do you want accountability? Or commentary? It’s important to know what that one question is.

Click here to see a great example of this (skip to 2:33). In this case, the interview literally was composed of a single question.

Again, we’re all unique people and unique interviewers. But if you keep these ground rules in mind, you’ll find that your interviews will be more fulfilling and useful. Don’t interview people like you would a four-year-old. Have a plan and stick to it; your work will be all the better for it. ♦

Image via LIFE Photo Collection, Google Cultural Institute