Every editorial manager needs to assign staff members to conduct interviews. Some interview subjects, such as celebrities and accomplished writers, are almost sure-fire hits. Others, especially public officials, disappoint readers by trying to sound erudite but communicating little real information.
If you want to guarantee a good result, no matter how difficult the interview subject, give your interviewer these guidelines from journalistic authorities.
From the New York Times:
1. Look your interview subject in the eye when you ask a question. “[R]eading from a list of questions guarantees a mediocre interview. It is one of the clearest signs of a beginner when a reporter arrives with questions all written out and three lines or so left between questions to write down the answers. It is far better to let the conversation follow its own path, with a little steering and nudging from the interviewer….
“If there are difficult questions to ask, hold them until near the end. By that time, both you and the subject should be relaxed and warmed up, which makes it more likely that the tough questions will be answered.”
2. Have the self-confidence to paraphrase. “After you have interviewed someone, you will have information that you can paraphrase and attribute to that person, and you will have information that you will want to quote directly. Paraphrased quotations should still reflect the substance and tone of what the person said, but they do not need quotation marks, which are used only for direct quotations.
“There is a lot of controversy about whether the words in quotation marks, the direct quotations, should be cleaned up and, if so, how much. People often say ‘uh’ and ‘well’ or have other verbal tics. Should you include those stutters if you are quoting someone directly? Most papers would take out such words. What about if a person starts a sentence, then stops and begins again? In that case, it is perfectly all right to begin the quotation with the second effort—in a sense, all quotations are partial quotations. A reporter almost never prints every word of the interview, from the first ‘hello’ to the final ‘goodbye.’”
The International Center for Journalists adds:
3. “Maintain eye contact! A reporter who spends most of the interview bent over taking notes or looking into a notebook can be as disconcerting as a tape recorder in an interviewee’s face. While taking notes and recording the interview, maintain as much eye contact as possible. Learn to take abbreviated notes, looking down only once in a while so you can focus on your interviewee. This will make the interview more like a conversation, and enable everyone to be more relaxed.”
4. “Review your notes right after the interview. Don’t wait until the end of the day or later in the week.… Go over them right away, while everything is fresh in your mind, filling in your shorthand and elaborating on your observations.”
Finally, Steve Buttry of the American Press Institute suggests:
5. “Write what you can before the interview. If you write as you report, you will generate important, specific questions for later interviews. Your stronger sense of where your story is going will give a strong focus to subsequent interviews.”
6. “Start with broad open-ended questions or simply invitations to talk. ‘Tell me about that.’ ‘What was that like?’ ‘Fill me in on…’ These questions invite the [subject] to tell you his story. They also give him a chance to tell you something you might not know enough to ask about specifically. And the general nature of the question gives the character a feeling of control as he answers.”
7. “Move the interview along with responsive questions and statements that basically tell the character to keep talking: ’Uh-huh.’ ’Really?’ ’What happened next?’ ’How did you react?’”
8. “Ask specific, direct questions to elicit the information you need that the open-ended questions don’t produce. ’How much did that cost?’ ’Why did you do that?’”
9. “Ask brief questions.”
10. “Ask for documentation. Be careful not to ask in a challenging way (unless you are indeed challenging). Just ask in a curious way. Letters or a journal may reveal some deeper emotion than your interview brought out at a more detached date. Legal or financial documents may provide exact dates or amounts where the character was estimating in the interview. A police report may provide detail that a crime victim may not want to talk about. A resume may provide details that a modest character might not disclose without prompting.”
11. “Don’t feel the need to fill the long, awkward pause. It’s a natural urge, and the subject is feeling the same thing. The pause may draw out the answer your question didn’t. You want thoughtful answers, so give the character time to think. This is not a stubborn stare down. You casually take a few moments to catch up on your notes, to take a few notes about the setting or your subject’s appearance and mannerisms. Just shut up and listen.”
12. “Listen for the surprise in the interview: the offhand remark that contradicts what you (or your editors) thought you knew; the iceberg tip that’s an invitation for you to extract a Poe-like confession; the hint at a much better story; the secondary interest that might lead you to a completely unrelated story.”
One Comment
I enjoyed seeing these tips, but the first one stopped me in my reading tracks for a moment:
In these days of electronic communications, we often don’t meet or see our interview subjects in person, so we may have to figure out ways to “look a subject in the eye” that are other than literal. One way I do this is by setting up interviews by phone, so there’s at least a verbal connection. Then I usually send questions ahead of time by e-mail, but do the interview by phone, and throw in a few more questions as the interview progresses so things don’t come across as too formal, stilted, or pre-planned.
I also had a minor quibble with what I think might prejudice the interview itself [item no. 5]. Yes, I do background research; I often make outlines before I start writing, and sometimes I even write a lede sentence ahead of time, to help organize my thoughts or angles, but I don’t write the actual story til after I do the interview(s).
Ruth T-C, Freelance Writer/Editor
http://www.writerruth.com