For Essay 2, be sure that you have done the assigned readings.
After you have read the example essays, you will be ready to start your interview about your selected subject.
ASSIGNMENT: Interviewing a Subject
Write a paper about someone who interests you and base the paper primarily on the interview with that person. Select a person you have heard about whose traits, interests, activities, background, or outlook on life might intrigue your readers. Your purpose is to show this person’s character and personality—to bring your subject to life for your readers.
Some cautions when selecting an interviewee:
DO NOT writing a paper about a roommate, a close friend, a boyfriend or girlfriend, or a close family member as often you will inadvertently rely on recall rather than information from the interview to reveal the person. For this assignment, it is best to select a subject whom you know only as an acquaintance.
Do NOT interview a patient of yours.
Do NOT interview your own children.
Do NOT interview anyone under the age of 18.
These students found notable people to interview:
One student wrote about a high school science teacher who had left teaching for a higher-paying job in the educational software industry, only to return three years later to the classroom.
One writer recorded the thoughts and feelings of a discouraged farmer she had known since childhood.
Another learned about adjustment to life in a new country by talking to his neighbor from Somalia.
Facing the Challenge Writing from an Interview
The major challenge writers face when writing from an interview is to find a clear focus. They must first sift through the huge amount of information generated in an interview and then decide what dominant impression of the subject to present in an essay.
To identify possible angles, jot down answers to these questions:
What did you find most interesting about the interview?
What topics did your subject talk about the most?
What did he or she become most excited or animated about?
What topics generated the most interesting quotations?
Your answers should help you determine a dominant impression—the aspect of your interviewee’s character or personality that you want to emphasize for your readers. Once you have this focus, you can pick the details from the interview that best illustrate the points you want to make. Make sure that all quotations—long or short—are accurate. Use them strategically and sparingly to reveal the character traits that you wish to emphasize. Select colorful quotations that allow readers to “hear” your subject’s distinctive voice. To capture the dynamic of conversation, include your own observations as well as actual quotations.
Before beginning, please note the following:
Your essay should be about 500 words.
It should be an original essay written specifically for this course and not recycled from something you previously wrote.
Your interview should occur in the present and not be a recollection of a past informal discussion.
You should set up a time for your interview and brainstorm some questions to get started. Of course, it is fine to branch off with other questions based on responses from the interviewee.
TIPS:
Carefully craft your questions so that they elicit strong responses.
Make sure that you include a thesis or controlling idea to bring all of the images and impressions together to form a dominant impression. For further information about writing a thesis, check out our Bb site: Writing/Grammar Tips, Writing Tips, Essay.
Weave quotations within your own sentences. Avoid overdoing phrases like “I asked” and “he/she said.” Make your sentences as interesting as the person being interviewed.
REFER TO THE CHAPTER TO DRAFT YOUR ESSAY.
SUBMITTING YOUR ESSAY:
Following these directions is very important, both in terms of formatting your essay, saving it, and submitting it to me. I will return an essay if it does not adhere to the below directions.
You MUST use Microsoft Word* to type your draft and save with your last name and the name of the assignment, as in Smith, Essay 2.
Format your essay using the Modern Language Association (MLA style) for spacing, font size, etc. You can do any of the following.
See your text’s Appendix: Quick Format Guide.
View this tutorial.
For additional information about formatting, go to the Essay 1 area in Blackboard.
Submit your essay to the designated area in Blackboard–Course Menu, Upload, Essays
*I accept ONLY MS Word as that program has editing features. Do NOT send me a Google doc, share a Google doc with me, try to share a file with me via OneDrive, or save your work as a PDF or RTF file.
