Interviews are among the best research sources for your writing, allowing you access to information that may not otherwise be available elsewhere. Through the process of interviewing a person or group of people, certainly you ask questions that are related to your topic in writing. Generally, these would include the most common questions starting from what, when, where, how and why.
Other types of questions are use for further details and explanations that you would like to have from your interviewee.
More than listing mere sentences on a page that have been ran through by a grammar checker, they help infuse the material with actual, flesh and blood personality.
There are numerous reasons why you may want to considering using interviews for a piece of writing. These include:
* privileged information that only your subject may possess
* to derive anecdotes you can use for a piece
* to see the facts from a particular individual’s point of view
* add a human touch to the piece
* to confirm something through asking question
Doing The Interview
Before going in for an interview, make sure you’re adequately prepared. Because you are the one who conduct an interview, make sure that are well dressed. Don’t be late when the schedule is being set and be ready with the materials you will use for the interview.
The more you know about the subject before conducting it, the more you’ll usually learn. After all, the meat of interviews usually happen from follow up questions, not from the packaged list of things you normally arrive with.
Usually, when you are being bothered by the lack of confidence that you feel, don’t let it show off. Face it in order for you to get the necessary information that you needed.
When you start an interview, start off light, asking basic questions that should not offer any issue for your subject to answer. This is particularly important when you intend to ask challenging questions later on, as it establishes an early rapport that can help make the interviewee more palatable to your tougher inquiries. General question are quite good at the start.
Later on, you will adapt the feeling of being like that of a reporter and questions that you need to be answered will be provided by your interviewee.
Post Interview
Once an interview is over, try to get a look at what you got immediately. Is it sufficient for the piece you are writing? Are there any areas you failed to cover? Does anything in the interview require further clarification? If you find a need a bit more information than what you were able to get, you can usually call up the subject to clarify these details, making sure to inform them of its particular relevance to what you are writing.
At least, you are trying to confirm that what you had jotted down are the exact information that your subject had given unto you. If possible, you can bring along a recorder and a note for writing whenever you’re on for an interview. These will be your back ups during interviews.
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