- x Foman123 x
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Mike, I was skeptical about you doing this, but I see that you have definitely been making an effort to improve your interviews. I'm impressed. Keep working on things like asking in-depth open-ended questions, spelling, and grammar. I hope you don't mind, but for The Guide I have put together a bunch of tips for interviewing people here on BNet. I'll post it below for your consumption and consideration for further interviews in the future.
Nice work, and I hope you continue to contribute to the community and improve your own writing in the process! The interview guide is below (edited for conciseness):
Posted by: x Foman123 x
Seven is such a great number. Here are seven tips to help you get great interviews!
1. How to get the interview
* Do not just PM or email somebody and say:"Can I interview you?"
* Instead, give them a little bit of information about who you are and why you are asking them for an interview. You are much more likely to get a response.
2. If Possible, Use an Instant Messenger Service Rather than Email or Private Message
* Instant messenger services feel more personal to the interviewee and he or she is likely to give more comprehensive answers to questions, and may even volunteer answers to questions that you have not asked.
* Also, Private Message or Email is easy to ignore and in many cases you might not get a response for a long time, if ever. Getting a person's instant messenger ID allows you to contact them whenever you want and get instant results.
3. Research your interviewee beforehand
* Nothing is worse than going into an interview knowing nothing about your interviewee. This will result in your questions being overly generic and boring. Even the interviewee may get bored answering the same tired questions about his/her favorite food, favorite movie, etc.
* Know ahead of time what kinds of things your interviewee is interested in. Is he or she a Marathon fan? Is he or she an administrator of an active chapter? Where do they live? Look at the person's online profiles, do an author search on b.net, or find another way to know more about who you're about to interview than their name and the basic reason for their interview.
4. Think about the kinds of questions that readers want answers to
* Nobody wants to read an interview that does not tell them anything interesting about the interviewee. Avoid questions like "what's your favorite movie" and "what kind of music do you listen to." Think instead about what makes the person an interesting presence here on BNet, and ask them about it.
* After seeing an online presence for so long in the form of an avatar and screen name, people also want to know about who a person is behind their online identity. Ask your interviewees about what they do in the real world, what their ambitions are, where they live and whether they like it there. Et cetera.
5. Ask follow-up questions
* Your best answers will come in follow-up questions. The best follow-up questions are open-ended. For example: "Why is that?" "How did you reach that decision?" "Is there anything else?" (ask that last one throughout the interview)
6. Be genuine and interested, but stay professional
* Be yourself in the interview, but stay professional and avoid insulting the interviewee. While insult-fests are fun to engage in, they are boring to read. Nobody will be interested in an interview filled with tired jokes and pointless back-and-forth banter. And because instant messenger conversations can be time-consuming (especially with interviewees who are busy and doing something else while talking to you), this kind of back-and-forth just wastes precious time that could be used getting much more interesting information.
* If you think an answer is cool or interesting or you want more information about it, just ask! People love to talk about themselves and will be more than happy to oblige your questions.
7. Edit the interview afterwards for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and links.
* You can do this yourself or post the interview directly to the Guide Staff Home and the editors will take care of it, but interviews should be properly formatted (see previous interviews on this forum for examples), spelled, and edited. Edit the interviewee's answers for spelling and grammar, and feel free to change the wording of your own questions to be more clear or to add funny comments.
* Do not change the interviewee's answers and do not change your questions in order to take the interviewee's answers out of context. Journalistic integrity is paramount, and if the Guide gets a reputation for changing peoples' answers, we will be unable to get further interviews.
* Example of a permissible change: "Question: Whats the best forum? Answer: Nwe Mumbasa" may be changed to, "Question: What is your favorite forum? Answer: New Mombasa."
* Example of an impermissible change: "Question: Whats the best forum? Answer: Nu Mumbasa" may NOT be changed to, "Question: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? Answer: New Mombasa."
* When an interviewee mentions something interesting that can be found online, include a link to it so that anybody reading the interview can follow up if they want to. DEFINITELY include links to groups, forums, websites, or specific posts that the interviewee mentions.
* Links to funny pictures can also add to the fun of reading an interview. For example: "Question: What do you do for a living in real life? Answer: I am a figure skater."
* Editing the interview for spelling, punctuation and grammar will give it a clean, crisp, professional look. Adding links will add to its fun and enjoyability by readers.
Feel free to PM me with any further questions about interviewing. Thanks, and good luck, Guide staff members!