Interviewing – How Do I Conduct an Interview?

By Stuart Ackerman

    Interviews provide authors with immediate firsthand information.  By interviewing, you will learn how to formulate questions, improve social skills, collect information, and write creatively.

     There are several factors involved in conducting a good interview.

1. Do some research.  It’s important to get some information about the topic and person you will be interviewing (or, get some information about the career or the job of the person you will be interviewing).

2. Determine the best people for you to interview.  For example, if you are doing a report about a specific law, find a lawyer in your community who practices that type of law.  Or, let’s suppose you are writing a report on a media issue.  You can e-mail or call a local television or radio station. 

3. Spend some quality time thinking about and writing down some good ‘interview’ questions.  That is, make your questions thought provoking and engaging.  When thinking about your questions, make sure that they will help make your report (or whatever you are producing) more factual and interesting.

4. After you have your questions, think of some backup questions.  For example, your questions might lead to other questions and other issues, so, make sure you are ready.

5. Make sure you take good notes and record the interview. 

6. If you quote the exact words during your interview, make sure you do just that, you must quote the ‘exact words’.

7. Make sure you write a thank-you note or send an e-mail after the interview to thank the person.

     Be sure you are well organized for your interview and that you have a good understanding of the piece of writing that follows (e.g. report, procedure, and exposition).

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