Do you conduct interviews by saying "talk about..."

OK, I must confess — I have been guilty of the topic of this blog post.

I routinely conduct interviews on both the news and sports side by addressing the subject and saying, "talk about your feelings after the students honored you with this award" or, "talk about your performance in the seventh inning."

Well, are we really asking a question to our interview subject, or are we prompting them to talk about a subject that we want them to address?

A better way to ask the question would be, "Mr. Johnson, how did you feel when the students handed you the Teacher of the Year award," or, "What pitches were key in getting through the seventh inning without a run being scored?"

Here is more on this topic from Poynter, http://tinyurl.com/3t4k563


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