How Long Should Oral Interviews Last When They Are Conducted For Research Projects?
The length of oral interviews may vary widely, depending on the ability of the person being interviewed to provide detailed responses to questions and his/her level of energy and interest in the project. As a general rule of thumb, you may keep asking questions until the person being interviewed becomes exhausted, or until he/she must leave for other engagements. Some interviews may be as short as a half hour, while others can last for over two hours. The average time, however is about one hour for each interview. It is the researcher’s responsibility to be able to continue the interview if the subject wishes to keep answering questions, or if he/she would like to provide additional information, but must also be ready to terminate the meeting is it becomes obvious that the person being interviewed has become exhausted. This is especially the case when speaking with elderly people. The length of the interview is often not entirely controlled by the researcher. Sometimes, people being in
