There's a wide variety of quality in people's ability to express themselves in written form, and an "email interview" is one way of assessing this. This generally takes the form of a set of questions provided to the interviewee to be answered by them using whatever means they have to prepare a suitable answer. You will often find that it takes some time to get a response back, especially if there are a lot of questions or if the questions are hard.
Frankly, I'm disappointed that more people don't spend the time on getting better at both writing written questions and in responding to them. A well-written set of questions, thought through in advance, can give a candidate or any other interview subject time to prepare and reflect on the tone they wish to project. This can be very instructive when compared to the same person's behavior in an unreflective, spontaneous, unscripted moment. In addition, email leaves a trail and a public record and you know how useful it is to have a public record to refer to from time to time rather than private, unreliable personal notes.
I know that the stereotype is the ink-stained reporter clutching the steno pad grabbing a good phrase here and there. But there needs to be more attention to how people present themselves in email, especially given how much municipal business is transacted through the email. I am certain that a reporter is capable of being just as tough and as hard-nosed via written form to members of government and candidates for elected office - just as good elected officials are skilled in the art of writing pointed requests for information from agencies and departments in order to get at the details they want.
Frankly, I'm disappointed that more people don't spend the time on getting better at both writing written questions and in responding to them. A well-written set of questions, thought through in advance, can give a candidate or any other interview subject time to prepare and reflect on the tone they wish to project. This can be very instructive when compared to the same person's behavior in an unreflective, spontaneous, unscripted moment. In addition, email leaves a trail and a public record and you know how useful it is to have a public record to refer to from time to time rather than private, unreliable personal notes.
I know that the stereotype is the ink-stained reporter clutching the steno pad grabbing a good phrase here and there. But there needs to be more attention to how people present themselves in email, especially given how much municipal business is transacted through the email. I am certain that a reporter is capable of being just as tough and as hard-nosed via written form to members of government and candidates for elected office - just as good elected officials are skilled in the art of writing pointed requests for information from agencies and departments in order to get at the details they want.
Irving
King, head of the University of Iowa Department of Literature, had an
unusual sideline for an English professor: raising chickens. In 1918,
King started a hatchery as a hobby on the south side of Jackson Avenue.
Eventually, the hatchery occupied several wood structures from Sheridan
Avenue to Ralston Creek between the alley and Rundell Street.
Fittingly, King's protégé in the poultry business was a poet: Ralph
Littrell, who had a bachelor's degree from Iowa State University. By
1940, Littrell was the hatchery's owner and operator. At about the same
time, a local builder named Lloyd Palmer bought the King home at 903
Dearborn Street from King's widow. Palmer, another hobbyist, ran a
hatchery in the brick building west of the house until 1946.
Aberdeen, F. David 
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