Once you come up with your topic the next step is to gather the information in order to write the article. In order to get this information you need to follow some steps first.
Start with doing some background research that can be accessed without an interview, if there is a website that heavily talks about what are you writing about use that as much as possible. Look for data that may be hard to get from an interview. You should also use the information that you gather to help you develop interview questions and the individuals to interview.
You should have at least three people quoted that you interviewed in order to get as much information as possible. While there may be a few exceptions, but the majority of articles fall under needing three sources.
Your questions should answer the who, what, where, when, why, and how questions that you do not have the answer for. I suggest having around 4-7 questions. Your last question should always be “Is there anything else you should like to add?”. This lets your source add anything that you may not have known was even taking place, and therefore a better article.
Placement of the questions order is also critical. Start from easier questions to harder ones, this allows the source to begin thinking about the subject you are interviewing them about which will lead to better answers and quotes.
Once you come up with all your questions the next step is setting up times to interview your sources or finding your sources to interview.
My preferred method is emailing the source to schedule the interview, it leads to less stress overall and gets everyone on the same page. When emailing a source I first introduce myself and say who I am, this includes that I am apart of my school’s student newspaper (or whatever you are writing for). I also say why I would like to interview them, and what I am writing about. Most importantly I say when I am available, this leads to them already having times to pick from, rather than them having to come up with a date and time all on their own. I also suggest sending a confirmation email to make sure you are on the same page about the time, location, and date.
Another method is tracking down the source without any communication before hand. I have only done this twice successfully. Only resort to this if it is day of article or you cannot find this persons email or they were not responding the their emails. While this methods works, you just have to know when and where this person is. It probably takes some practice as well, and I just don’t have that practice just yet.
What are your tips for coming up with questions for interviews or anything I discusses above?
Stay tuned, next I will be discussing my tips for conducting an interview!
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