The main aim of chapter five of the “Finding out about others: the skill of questioning” book by Hargie (2011) is to deepen your understanding of different question types and to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each kind. There are many key themes within this text such as; the use of real life evidence as an example for each question type, every example is also related back to a setting surrounding children and also how the specific wording of particular questions can influence different answers.

One of the claims identified in the chapter include that researchers have discovered that the use of open ended questions actually improve the accuracy levels in a child’s recall.

Hardy and Van Leeuwen (2004) also claim that young children have a difficulty understanding when embedded questions such as “Can you tell me who was there?” are used.

One of the arguments presented in this chapter include the confusion for children surrounding rhetorical questions. This supports the fact they have been taught to always answer questions and struggle to identify that these different  questions could sometimes be used for another purpose such as sarcasm or to keep them engaged rather than for an extended response.

The chapter claims that multiple questions can be confusing and often “wasteful” as some parts of the question may not be answered because the respondent may feel almost overwhelmed with the amount of information they have to provide. I however disagree with this as I believe the use of multiple questions are beneficial as they will always keep the respondent focussed on the topic by answering specific questions surrounding the issue, and may also reduce the tendency for going off on a tangent as they know they have shorter more specific questions to be answered as well.