Exercise 2

1.   Choose a suitable topic (where subjective meanings are important) eg:

• why choose this course?
  
• what are the main problems with a particular policy?
• why do people (not) visit a leisure site?
• for or against fox hunting and why?
  

2.  Divide the variables into ‘structured’ (age, frequency, postal district, qualifications) and ‘unstructured’ (reasons, beliefs, feelings, influences etc)

3.   Devise a process to sequence questions :

• naturalistic narrative?
  
• easy ones first?
  
• 'closed'' questions' follow 'open' ones?
  
• 'sensitive' ones by using flash cards?
  
• prompts to assist memory?
  
• check questions (checking to see if there has been any exaggeration etc)?
• dummies to avoid the interviewee guessing the purpose of the interview?