Guide to writing an interview

Caption : Tashio6's interview with James from the Commons Institute Photographer : ActNow

An interview is a question and answer session with anyone who has special knowledge about a particular issue—an expert in a field or anyone who has been directly affected by an issue or action. There's one main rule—it must relate to action!

People you might like to interview include friends, family, professionals, experts and teachers.

You can interview them in person or send them a list of questions via email and ask them to respond.

You can also do a vox pop style interview with people off the street—what are ‘people’ saying about an issue or action?

If you want to interview someone famous, send a message to the ActNow Team to see if we can help you make contact.

Getting started

Research before you start. Good interviews are always good because of the amount of research done beforehand. You want to draw out your subject’s opinion, knowledge and experience—mostly their experience!

Think about how you phrase the questions. You want snappy answers, so ask snappy, ‘to the point’ questions. If you start to ramble, your subject starts to ramble.

Some questions you might like to ask include:

• Why did you get involved in this issue?
• How have you taken action on this issue?
• How did you feel when you were taking this action?
• How did you feel after you completed the action?
• Would you do it again? Why/ Why not?
• What would you do differently next time?
• Do you think your role made a difference?
• What have been some of the barriers to taking action on this issue?
• What are some of the ways you overcame them?
• What are some of the positive outcomes you’ve achieved?

At the interview

You might feel a bit nervous, so take some deep breathes! The more prepared you are, the better you’ll feel. And remember that people love talking about themselves, the issues they’re into and the stuff they’ve done—so your interviewee will love you!
Since the interview is meant to further the reader’s knowledge of an issue or action make sure you explain this to your interviewee before the interview starts. Ask them to be very specific in their answers. And if they start to use terms or jargon that may be confusing, ask them to clarify the point.

Remember—it’s all about action! If the person starts to take a detailed tangent about the international law that relates to this issue (or some other equally boring detail) pull them back to the point! What did they do, why did they do it, and why should others do it?

Ask more questions and get more answers than need. You can always edit an interview to make it appear shorter but it’s not always possible to do a second interview to get something you’ve missed.

Writing up the interview

Title

• Make it clear, brief and descriptive

Description

• This is a summary of your interview. It appears as the ‘grab’ at the top of your story and is also displayed in search results.
• Make it snappy and convince the reader to read on.
• Clearly state the interviewee’s name and their relationship to an issue.

Body

Try to keep the interview on point and short, preferably one or two pages. If your interviewee rambled you can edit the material. Just include the relevant information.

Ask the interviewee if they want to see the finished interview before you publish it. This is mostly a courtesy

For ease of reading it would be best if the interview was written in the question and answer format. For example:

Why did you get involved in this issue?

Because my mum was always been committed to helping homeless people and my mum is pretty amazing

What action have you taken?

Last year I organised a dance party and as part of the conditions of entry I got people to bring along with them at least one item of clothing to donate to the homeless.