Prompts
Build an interview guide from your topics
A consent script in plain language, eight to twelve questions that do not lead, each with a follow-up, and the questions to avoid with the reason beside each.
What may go into it: Public or invented material only
The prompt
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. I have an interview tomorrow. Build a guide from the topics below. The person I will interview may have lived through hard events, so every question must be open, must not suggest its own answer, and must not ask for a detail we do not need. Rules: 1. Write no question that carries its own answer. The words of the answer you expect must not appear in the question. 2. Ask for no identifying detail beyond what the topic needs. No exact address, no full name of a third person, no employer, no date of birth. 3. Ask about events and sequence, not about feelings the person has not offered. 4. Every question must be answerable with a refusal. Add no question that assumes the person will continue. 5. Invent no organisation name, no project name and no place where the recording will be kept. Leave each of those as a gap marked [FILL IN BY HAND]. 6. Plain words. One idea per question. Give me, in this order: A. An opening script to read aloud: who I am, what the interview is for, where the recording and the notes will be kept, that the person may stop at any moment or skip any question, and how to withdraw consent later. Plain language, under 150 words, no legal terms. B. Eight to twelve questions, grouped under the topics below, each with one follow-up question under it. C. Questions to avoid, six at most, each with its reason in three or four words: suggests the answer, reopens the harm, or asks a detail we do not need. D. A closing script: what happens next, and one sentence checking the person is still comfortable with what they gave. Topics: [LIST YOUR THREE OR FOUR TOPICS]
Opens a new chat in that tool with this prompt already typed in. Fill in every box first, and read the line at the top about what may go into it.
15 minutes · Gives you a checklist · Works on a phone · How much to paste at once: Paste your topic lines only, a few lines at most, and if fewer than eight questions come back or a topic has none, ask again with two topics at a time.
Read the answer against the checks below before you use it in anything that leaves your organisation.
What to fill in
- [ANSWER LANGUAGE]: name the language you will speak in the interview room, for example Arabic, Kurdish Sorani or English.
- [LIST YOUR THREE OR FOUR TOPICS]: one line per topic, in the words you would use with a colleague. Paste no testimony, no names and no case details.
- Every [FILL IN BY HAND] gap: complete it yourself before the interview. Your own name, what the interview is for, and where the recording will be kept.
Before you trust the answer
- Read every question in section B aloud and ask whether it already contains its answer. Delete the ones that do.
- Cut any question that asks for a detail you do not actually need, however useful it looks.
- Fill in every [FILL IN BY HAND] gap before you read the opening script to anybody.
When it goes wrong
It will produce a polite leading question, for example one that names the harm and asks the person to confirm it.
Tools this is written for
Written 2026-09-01Nobody has run this prompt in this language yet, so read the answer twice.
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
Where to go next
- The task this belongs toTranscribing testimonies and interviews
- Staying safeClassify the material first
Written forResearcher or analystJournalist or editor