Generating Ideas

For more on each strategy for generating ideas in this section or for additional strategies, see Ch. 19.

If an image of the perfect subject has flashed into your mind, consider yourself lucky, and set up an appointment with that person at once. If you have drawn a blank, you’ll need to cast about for a likely interview subject.

Brainstorm for Possible Subjects. Try brainstorming for a few minutes to see what pops into your mind. Your subject need not be spectacular or unusual; ordinary lives can make fascinating reading.

DISCOVERY CHECKLIST

  • Are you acquainted with anyone whose life has been unusually eventful, stressful, or successful?
  • Are you curious about why someone you know made a certain decision or how that person got to his or her current point in life?
  • Is there an expert or a leader whom you admire or are puzzled by?
  • Do you know someone whose job or hobby interests you?
  • What older person could tell you about life thirty or even fifty years ago?
  • Who has passionate convictions about society, politics, sex, or childrearing?
  • Whose background and life history would you like to know more about?
  • Whose lifestyle, values, or attitudes are utterly different from your own and from those of most people you know?

Tap Local Interview Resources. Investigate campus resources such as departmental or faculty Web pages, student activity officers and sponsors, recent yearbook photographs, stories from the newspaper archives, or facilities such as the theater, media, or sports centers. Look on campus, at work, or in your community for people with intriguing backgrounds or experiences. Campuses and libraries often maintain databases of local authorities, researchers, and authors available for press contacts or expert advice. Identify several prospects in case your first choice isn’t available.

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Former President Richard Nixon, right, is interviewed by David Frost, May 5, 1977. Their exchanges later inspired an award-winning play and the movie Frost/Nixon.

Set Up an Interview. Find out whether your prospect will grant an interview, talk at length — an hour, say — and agree to appear in your paper. If you sense reluctance, find another subject.

Don’t be timid about asking for an interview. After all, your request is flattering, acknowledging that person as someone with valuable things to say. Try to schedule the interview on your subject’s own ground — his or her home or workplace. The details you observe in those surroundings can make your essay more vivid.

Prepare Questions. The interview will go better if you are an informed interviewer with prepared questions. Find out a bit about your subject’s life history, experience, affiliations, and interests, and then work on your questions.

Ask about the person’s background, everyday tasks, favorite activities, and hopes to encourage your subject to open up. Asking for a little imagining may elicit a revealing response. (If your house were on fire, what would you try to save? If you had your life to live over, what would you do differently?) Focus on whatever aspects best reveal your subject’s personality. Good questions will help you lead the conversation where you want it to go, get it back on track when it strays, and avoid awkward silences. For example, to interview someone with an unusual job or hobby, try questions like these:

One good question can get some people talking for hours, and four or five may be enough for any interview, but it’s better to prepare too many than too few. You can easily skip any that seem irrelevant during the interview. Simply listening and responding may encourage genuine communication.

Be Flexible and Observant. Sometimes a question won’t interest your subject. Or the person may seem reluctant to answer, especially if you’re unwittingly trespassing into private territory, such as someone’s love life. Don’t badger. If you wait silently for a bit, you might be rewarded. If not, just go on to the next question. Should the conversation drift, steer it back: “But to get back to what you were saying about …”

For more on using observation, see Ch. 5.

Sometimes the most rewarding question simply grows out of what the subject says or an item you note in the environment. Observing your subject’s clothing, expressions, mannerisms, or equipment may also suggest unexpected facets of personality. For example, Ryan-Hines describes Joan Gilmore’s appearance as she introduces her character.

Peer Response: Preparing Questions for an Interview

Ask a classmate to read the questions you plan to use in your interview. Then interview your classmate, asking the following:

  • Are the questions appropriate for the person who will be interviewed?
  • Will the questions help gather the information I am seeking?
  • Are any of the questions unclear? How could I rephrase them?
  • Do any of the questions seem redundant? Irrelevant?
  • What additional questions would you suggest that I ask?

Decide How to Record the Interview. Many interviewers use only paper and pen to take notes unobtrusively. Even though they can’t write down everything the person says, they want to look the subject in the eye and keep the conversation lively. As you take notes, be sure to record or sketch details on the scene — names and dates, numbers, addresses, surroundings, physical appearance. Also jot down memorable words exactly as the speaker says them, and put quotation marks around them. When you transcribe your notes, you will know that they are quoted directly.

A telephone or an e-mail interview sounds easy but lacks the interplay you can achieve face-to-face. You’ll miss observing possessions that reveal personality or seeing smiles, frowns, or other body language. Meet in person if possible, or set up an online video chat.

Many professionals advise against using a recorder because it may inhibit the subject and make the interviewer lazy about concentrating on the subject’s responses. Too often, the objections go, it tempts the interviewer simply to quote rambling conversation without shaping it into good writing. If you do bring a recorder to your interview, be sure that the person you’re talking with has no objections. Arm yourself with paper and pen in case the recorder malfunctions. Perhaps the best practice is to combine both methods. Write down the main points, and use your recording to check quotations for accuracy or add more words from the interview.

As soon as the interview ends, rush to the nearest desk, and write down everything you recall but couldn’t record. The questions you prepared for the interview will guide your memory, as will notes you took while talking.