how to write an article on an interview

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How to Write Up an Interview-Based Article

• 5-minute read
• 26th May 2021

You’ve interviewed someone and had it transcribed. But what happens next? How do you turn a raw interview transcript into an article people will want to read? There are five key steps to writing up an interview-based article:

• Review the transcript and plan what you want to include.
• Decide how you’re going to structure your article.
• Write up the interview, editing for clarity and concision as appropriate.
• Consider whether reorganizing parts of the interview will help it make sense.
• Proofread your finished interview article to ensure it is error free.

For more on how to write up an interview-based article, read on below.

1. Review the Transcript

A transcript is a written, word-for-word copy of what was said in an interview. This provides the starting point for any interview-based article. Before you start writing, then, you will want to review your transcript. This will help you identify:

• What to include and what to leave out when you write up the interview.
• Key details or recurring themes that you want to highlight in your article.
• Any details that need checking with your subject before publication.

It is a good idea to listen to the recorded interview again, too. Hearing the interviewee’s voice will help you capture the tone of their responses. If you haven’t yet transcribed your interview, you can use an audio-to-text transcription tool .

2. Decide How to Structure Your Article

There are two common ways of structuring an interview-based article. One is a literal question-and-answer format, where each question is presented in turn, with the subject’s answers following. For example:

What made you approach writing you latest book in this way? I wanted to play with narrative forms and decided to experiment. To be honest, I was still prepared to scrap the whole idea and start again, though!

Alternatively, you can use a narrative form. This is where you describe what happened during the interview, using quotes to relay what the subject said, but giving extra detail about what they do, the surroundings, and even your own thoughts and feelings as the interviewer (if appropriate):

Taylor shrugs when asked about the writing style of her next, saying she “wanted to play with narrative forms and decided to experiment,” though she “was still prepared to scrap the whole idea and start again” if she had to.

You can even use a hybrid of the two, framing a question-and-answer piece with narrative sections or your own thoughts at the beginning and end.

3. Edit for Clarity and Concision

When we speak, we often use more words than necessary. Sentences become garbled. We use all sorts of linguistic fillers and crutch words . Sometimes we lose confidence in what we say and trail off. And none of this makes for a great read!

As a result, most interview-based articles will be edited for clarity and concision. This might involve making changes along the following lines, for instance:

Original So, um, I was going to start writing…when I started writing the book, I just knuckled down and worked really hard for two months, basically.

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Edited When I started writing the book, I worked really hard for two months.

The second version is much clearer and easier to read, picking out the key parts of the original to communicate the same thought more effectively.

It’s important to be careful when editing a transcript, though. You won’t want to accidentally twist the subject’s words or misrepresent them, so keep changes minimal where possible and make sure to preserve the meaning of the original.

If you need to rephrase something more thoroughly for clarity, moreover, you may want to check that the interviewee is okay with any changes you’ve made.

Always check your style guide or publisher’s instructions, too, as some are quite restrictive regarding the changes you can make. AP style , for example, suggests only making very minor changes to quotations (e.g., cutting out “umms” and “aahs”).

4. Consider Reorganizing Parts of the Transcript

Interviews can go in unexpected directions. The interviewee might go off on tangents. Or the same topic might come up at different points. To make sure your interview article reads smoothly, then, you might need to reorganize slightly.

For example, perhaps your subject speaks about their early years at the start of an interview, but slips in an extra childhood anecdote later on in a context where it doesn’t fit. Or perhaps you are thinking of cutting part of a response but want to keep an insightful statement that would work elsewhere in the article.

In these cases, it is often fine to move things around as long as the change of context doesn’t misrepresent what your subject has said. However, this is another case where you may need to get the interviewee’s approval for any changes.

5. Proofread Your Interview Article

Whether you are publishing an article yourself or submitting it for publication, always proofread your finished interview to make sure it is clear and error free. You should also check you haven’t changed the meaning of anything your subject said.

You could even use a proofreading service at this stage. Our expert editors are always available, so learn more about our article proofreading service and our transcript proofreading service today.

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How to write an interview article: A step-by-step guide

Writing an interview article correctly is essential for capturing the essence of the interviewee's viewpoints, experiences, and insights. The development of a comprehensive and engaging narrative from the interviewee's comments requires careful preparation, skillful questioning, and a strong storytelling ability.

In the following guide, we’ll discuss how to write an interview article and walk you through the entire process step-by-step.

A detailed tutorial of writing an article

Writing an article requires both creative and technical expertise in order to present facts, concepts, or viewpoints in a clear and interesting manner. It also requires the writers to follow a few essential procedures, regardless of whether it's for a newspaper, blog, magazine, or academic publication.

These steps help in organising thoughts, ensuring clarity, and engaging your target audience effectively.

Selecting a topic: Pick a topic that interests, corresponds to, and is relevant to your audience.

Research: Compile facts, figures, and viewpoints to create a solid article base.

Drafting an outline: Organise your writing to guarantee that the ideas flow naturally.

Writing the introduction: Create a captivating start that establishes the article's tone and explains its goal.

Developing the body: Provide information, examples, and analysis to support your points.

Conclusion: Summarise the main points and provide a closing thought or call to action.

Editing and revising: Edit your work to improve its grammatical correctness, consistency, style, and clarity.

Citation of sources: Give due credit to the information's original sources.

When writing an article that is reliable, engaging, and informative all at once, every step counts.

Getting started with the interview article writing process

Getting started with an interview article can feel a bit like being a detective – you're building a narrative, one answer at a time. Writing an interview article requires understanding of the format and making full use of the audio resources.

Moving forward, we'll outline how to turn your interviews from a straightforward discussion into an engaging, polished piece. How to write an article based on an interview is quite different from how a general article is written. We'll look at research and preparation strategies, examine interview article structure, and provide advice on how to conduct the actual interview.

These tips will assist you in how to write an interview article, regardless of your level of experience as a journalist or as an interviewer.

Understanding the interview article format

The structure of an interview article is crucial for effectively conveying the interviewee's voice and story. Important components of this format consist of:

Introduction: Introduce the interviewee, giving context about their background and why they are a subject of interest.

Segment the article: The article should be divided into sections based on the themes or subjects discussed in the interview. This aids in the logical arrangement of the content.

Formatting the Q&A section: Presenting the questions and answers in a clear manner. You may either paraphrase this for clarity or use a direct Q&A style.

Quotations: Use direct quotes to make an impression and to show the interviewee's character and voice.

Conclusion: Recap the most important learnings or conclusions from the conversation.

Research and preparation

Choosing the appropriate interviewee is essential. Select a person who can offer useful insight and is associated with the subject. To create thoughtful and interesting questions for the interview, thoroughly investigate the topic and the interviewee's background before the meeting.

Here’s a general guide to prepare for an interview to get started with the article:

• Raise unrestricted questions to get in-depth answers.
• Combine factual queries with questions that generate personal narratives or viewpoints.
• To ensure that the conversation continues, prepare more questions than you think you'll want to ask.

If you’re going for a journalistic interview, then you can read more about it here .

The interview process

A good interview takes planning as well as flexibility. There are certain things you should make sure to do and a few things you should be avoiding. We’ve listed down a few basics of those for you to consider.

Advice on interview strategies:

• Establish a welcoming atmosphere for the interviewee.
• Engage in active listening and pursue interesting topics.
• Be kind and considerate of the interviewee's comfort level when asking questions.

Common errors to avoid:

• Steer clear of biassed or leading questions.
• Avoid staying in a predetermined direction
• Stay quiet during the interviewee's speech.

To expedite your interview analysis stage post interviewing, you can employ transcription tools. Learn how to transcribe an interview so that you can start the structuring and writing without having to listen to the audio repeatedly for analysis.

The complete guide to structuring and writing an interview article

Have you ever wondered what makes some interview articles stand out, compelling you to read every word, while others barely hold your attention? In this section, we'll explore the art of structuring and writing an interview article that not only informs but also captivates.

If you’re still wondering how to write an article based on an interview then we’ve got more guidelines up ahead.

How to structure an interview article

The way your interview article is organised may have a big impact on how readers interact with it. An article with better readability should contain:

• Compelling introduction: A captivating beginning should grab the reader's attention from the first. Give background information on the person being interviewed as well as the interview's setting. Set the stage for what’s coming.
• Body passages: Arrange the article's body according to a theme or time period. Every segment needs to concentrate on an individual aspect of the interviewee's answers or a distinct subject covered throughout the conversation.
• Conclusion: Conclude the article by repeating the main ideas and perhaps offering any reflections on the wider takeaways or new perspectives from the interview.

Crafting an engaging article

To maintain readers' interest:

• Use quotations wisely: Include direct quotes in your writing to give it personality and authenticity. Quotes may accentuate important ideas and provide a personal touch.
• Change the sentence form: To keep the reader interested, alternate between brief, snappy sentences and longer, more detailed ones.
• Follow the red thread: Ensure that your content follows a narrative flow that leads the reader from one idea to the next.
• Add personality: Adding a little personality or a distinct voice might make the piece more relatable and interesting, depending on the readership and the topic matter.

Editing and proofreading

In order to make sure your work is error-free, clear, and precise, editing and proofreading are essential. Here are some steps you can take to make sure your writing is error-free:

Examine the larger picture while editing for content. Does the article make sense? Are there any parts that are off-topic or require greater clarification?

Make sure your tone is constant and your phrases are understandable. Look for technical terms or jargon that might mislead readers.

When proofreading, pay attention to punctuation, grammar, and spelling mistakes. It's usually preferable to do this after setting aside some time to read the material again so you can approach it objectively.

Remember that a well-proofread and edited article raises your reputation as a writer in addition to making it easier to read.

Read examples of interview-based articles

Now that we’ve covered how to interview someone and how to write an interview article, it’s important that you skim through a few sample articles to get a better idea of how things should go about.

If you wish to delve more into the art of writing interview articles, you can do so by browsing through these samples . Here, you can gain valuable insights and inspirations on how to write an interview article which involves capturing the essence of the interviews in your writing.

Discover Good Tape’s transcription software for journalists

Having a good transcription service to convert your audio interviews into written documents makes work 10x times faster. You can spend more time analysing and improving the overall quality of your article rather than on listening to the recordings on loop. This is where Good Tape comes to your aid.

It’s simple to use and has a shorter turnaround time which makes it the most effective choice. Here’s how you can work your way around it.

• Upload your file: The first step in the process is to upload the file you need to transcribe. Make sure the file is complete and has all the information you require.

• Select the language: Good Tape has a number of options when it comes to choosing the language of transcription. Select the one you want. You can also choose the “auto-detect” option for the system to automatically identify the language in the audio.

• Transcribe the text: Once the file is uploaded and the language is chosen, proceed further by clicking the “transcribe” button. Your audio transcription process starts here.

• To wait or not to wait: If you’re a casual plan user, you will have to wait for some time for your transcription to be completed due to excessive load by the users. However, if you’re a professional or a team user, you get your results ASAP. The wait time depends on the plan you’re subscribed to .

• Be notified: You will receive a notification once your transcribed document is ready. An e-mail will be sent to your inbox containing the link to access and download the document.

Get started with audio-to-text transcription today with Good Tape and save your valuable time by not having to manually transcribe interview audios. Experience the ease and efficiency of transforming your spoken words into accurately written documents to make the process of writing an interview article more smooth and hassle-free.

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How to Write a Profile or Interview-Based Article

The process from interview to conclusion

• Freelancing & Consulting
• Retail Small Business
• Restauranting
• Real Estate
• Nonprofit Organizations
• Import/Export Business
• Food & Beverage
• Event Planning
• Construction
• Operations & Success
• Becoming an Owner

A profile is a feature with one very pivotal point and focus—a certain individual who is noteworthy or exemplary in some way. Your readers want to know as much about him as possible. But they don't want the surface stuff, information that's available in untold other articles about him. They want something new. They want something intriguing. And so do the editors who will consider buying your work.

Mastering that art and learning how to write a good profile article can translate into a great new skill for freelance writers , but even seasoned journalists can sometimes have trouble with them. Anyone can benefit from brushing up on the basics because these are among the main types of pieces published in magazines and newspapers. 

The Nuts and Bolts of a Profile Article

The person or subject of this type of article typically fits into a special niche of the magazine or has a new program or product to promote. Generally, her achievements, background, and personality are the focus of the article. So how do you get her personality and voice to come through in your writing? As with all types of writing, it can be a bit tricky, but you can follow some prescribed steps and refine them to your own style. 

This method not only builds the article around your subject's voice, but it also tends to get from transcript to rough draft fairly quickly—a real bonus when time is money.

Interview Your Subject 

First, you must deal with conducting the actual interview. You can't write an article, much less a profile piece, if you don't have all the underlying information.

You'll wrap up your interview either with a set of notes or a sound recording, but preferably both. It's usually a bad idea to rely entirely on written notes, particularly in this day and age when you don't have to. You're likely to miss telling voice tones and possibly inferences if you're so busy scribbling everything down that you're not really  listening. 

Not only that, but you're not engaging your target either. You're busy jotting down the information you think you need—today, right now, before you've really begun fleshing out your profile. If you're really listening to your subject as he speaks, you might be surprised at the questions that pop into your mind as you go along. If you're curious about his answers, the odds are strong that your readers will be as well. Stay on your toes. 

If you do take written notes, be sure to tidy up them up and double check any special spellings or names while the interview and the interviewee are still fresh in your mind. Otherwise, commit the entire interview to a recording. Then you can sit down later and listen and transcribe what was said. And you'll always have the recording to refer back to if you later have questions. 

Organize Your Data

If you use a recording device, you might want to consider hiring a transcriptionist to put the recording into writing for you. They're surprisingly affordable, and you can deduct the cost as a business expense  come tax time. But some writers are actually fleet enough of fingers to do this themselves, and it can be beneficial.

Make a one-time, tax-deductible purchase of a dictation recorder and machine, the kind that is used in offices all over the country. Transfer the recording to tape, pop the tape into the machine, and begin typing with a handy little foot pedal that lets you pause the recording when you need to catch up.

This can be a worthwhile purchase if you do a lot of writing that involves interviews. And here's the bonus. When you hit periods of conversation that really don't contribute anything to your profile, you can fast-forward right through them. You'll still have them there on tape if you want to go back to them later, but, again, time is money. Don't waste yours typing words of dialogue you'll never use, or highlighting numerous pages of a transcript you had someone else type for you word for word. 

You'll want to limit this period of lag time to a day or two at most, however. You risk losing your gut impressions and instincts—not to mention your motivation—if too much time passes between the interview and when you begin actually writing. And you don't want to wake up yawning one morning to realize that the finished product is due  today  and you haven't even gotten past this step yet. But you know that already, right? Freelancing for a living requires superhuman discipline. 

Review the Transcript 

Now it's time to review your transcript or notes. Identify broad subjects that stick out to you. Are there any recurring items, events, or ideas that this person seems to keep going back to? Is anything mentioned twice, three times, or with great passion? Try to gather at least three to five broad subjects from this first reading.

In a perfect world, your interview subject left the door open, and you can go back with a quick phone call to clarify these high points or get additional information. 

Narrow Your Focus 

Narrow down these broad items. This is a good time to reread the assignment  from your editor or, if you're working on something you've pitched to an editor, read over your own pitch. If you haven't even pitched the idea or if you're just flying with this, go back to your original notes. 

Was a particular, specific slant mentioned anywhere, such as concentration on the subject's recent accomplishments or promotion of a certain service? Compare your broad subjects to any research on the person that you might have done even before the interview took place. Compare them to your editor's directives or to your own goals. Pull out and refine these broad subject areas and place them temporarily in your transcript as your subheads. You can rename them to catchy subhead titles now, or you can wait until you have a finished product so you can be sure the subheads really grab the gist of the subject area.

Cut and Paste 

Use your word processing program's cut-and-paste function to pull the interviewee's quotes about each topic into the appropriate subhead area. Of course, this is easiest if you transcribed the interview recording yourself, but plenty of software programs out there let you scan and edit a transcript typed by someone else if you didn't receive it in a word processor file. 

Now you're pulling the subject's words out of the chronological order in which he spoke them, but that's OK. In fact, it's ideal. You're not just rewriting what he said. You're writing a profile. 

It's not necessary to pull whole paragraphs. At this point, you'll have a feeling for the direction that your article is taking. Get the best quotes sorted and just leave the rest for future reference. 

Practice Your Craft

By now you should have three to five subtitles, depending on your target length, and some great quotes about each of those topics. It's time to tell your readers why all the subtitles are important.

Use transitional phrasing, such as "Mr. Blank agrees..." or "Ms. SoAndSo makes this clear when she..." to move into your subject's quotes. Finish out the paragraph, subtitle, or idea with more research or exposition, and wrap it up or transition it to the next subtitle.

Write Your Introduction 

Write the introduction . This step depends on your own writing style and preferences. 

Many writers prefer to do this first before fleshing out their subtitles. It can establish some internal guidelines for the subtitles and help you get things sorted out in your own mind as to where you're going with this story. But whether you do it before or after you flesh out your subtitles, introduce the subject, her history, and the background of your piece. The introduction should reflect on the article in general, and it should also frame the interviewee in some way. 

Now wrap things up with your conclusion . It often alludes back to the introduction or some interesting part of the interview. You can also use it to give a look ahead to the interviewee's future plans.

No, you're not done yet. Now reread. Revise. Rewrite. And repeat. 

Tips From Start to Finish

• Conduct research on your subject prior to interviewing.
• Follow your editor's specifications and listen to that person's take on the interviewee's interest points.
• Allow yourself a day or two after the rough draft before editing, if possible.
• Be aware of the word count assigned as you're writing and make edits , if necessary. 
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10 Examples: How to Write an Interview Article in 2024

Writing an interview article in 2024 requires a strategic approach to engage readers and provide valuable insights. In this article, we will explore ten examples of how to write an interview article that captivates your audience and ranks high in search engine results . By incorporating NLP (Natural Language Processing) techniques and LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) terms, you can optimize your article for readability and search rankings

I use AtOnce's AI SEO writer to generate high-quality articles that actually rank in Google:

1. Research the Interviewee

Before conducting the interview, thoroughly research the interviewee to gain a comprehensive understanding of their background, expertise, and achievements. Utilize NLP tools to extract key information from their online presence , such as social media profiles , articles, and interviews. This research will help you ask relevant and insightful questions during the interview.

John Doe, a renowned entrepreneur and author, has revolutionized the tech industry with his innovative startups . His expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning has earned him accolades worldwide. By delving into his past ventures and current projects, we can uncover valuable insights into the future of technology.

2. Prepare a List of Questions

Creating a well-structured list of questions is crucial for a successful interview article. Start with broad questions to establish context and gradually delve into more specific topics . Incorporate LSI terms related to the interviewee's field to optimize your article for search engines. Use NLP techniques to ensure your questions are clear and concise

Q1: Can you share your journey as an entrepreneur and how it led you to the tech industry?

Q2: How do you envision the future of artificial intelligence and its impact on various industries?

Q3: Could you elaborate on your latest project and its potential to disrupt the market?

3. Conduct the Interview

During the interview, maintain a conversational tone to make the interviewee feel comfortable and encourage open dialogue. Active listening is crucial to ask follow-up questions and delve deeper into interesting points. Utilize NLP techniques to analyze the interviewee's responses and identify key insights that will resonate with your audience.

As John Doe passionately shared his entrepreneurial journey, it became evident that his drive to make a positive impact on society fueled his success. His vision for the future of artificial intelligence was inspiring, highlighting the potential for AI to revolutionize healthcare, transportation, and education. His latest project aimed to democratize access to AI technology, empowering small businesses to thrive in the digital age.

4. Structure the Article

Organize your interview article in a logical and coherent manner. Start with an engaging introduction that captures the reader's attention and provides context. Divide the article into sections based on the topics discussed during the interview. Incorporate LSI terms in your headings and subheadings to optimize your article for search engines.

Introduction: Unveiling the Mind of an Entrepreneur: A Conversation with John Doe

Section 1: Journey as an Entrepreneur: From Humble Beginnings to Tech Disruption

Section 2: The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Transforming Industries and Empowering Businesses

Section 3: Latest Project: Democratizing AI Technology for Small Businesses

5. Incorporate Quotes

Quotes from the interviewee add credibility and authenticity to your article. Select impactful quotes that encapsulate key insights or unique perspectives . Use NLP techniques to analyze the sentiment of the quotes and ensure they align with the overall tone of your article. Incorporate LSI terms in the quotes to enhance their relevance to the topic.

"I believe that every individual has the potential to make a difference. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, we can create a future where technology empowers rather than replaces human capabilities," John Doe passionately stated. His words resonated with a sense of optimism and a commitment to human-centric innovation.

6. Provide Context and Background Information

While the interviewee's insights are valuable, it is essential to provide context and background information to ensure your readers understand the broader picture. Incorporate NLP techniques to analyze the interviewee's responses and extract relevant information that complements the interview. Use LSI terms to enhance the article's relevance and improve search rankings

Before delving into John Doe's journey as an entrepreneur, it is important to understand the challenges he faced and the lessons he learned along the way. His background in computer science and his early experiences in the startup ecosystem shaped his entrepreneurial mindset and laid the foundation for his future success.

7. Include Visuals

Visual elements such as images, infographics, and videos enhance the reader's experience and make your article more engaging. Incorporate visuals that complement the interviewee's story or provide additional context. Utilize NLP techniques to analyze the visual elements and ensure they align with the overall narrative of your article.

Include a captivating image of John Doe in his workspace, surrounded by cutting-edge technology . This image not only adds visual appeal but also reinforces the interviewee's expertise and credibility. Additionally, incorporate infographics that visually represent the potential impact of artificial intelligence on various industries.

8. Edit and Proofread

Editing and proofreading are crucial to ensure your interview article is error-free and polished. Utilize NLP tools to identify grammatical errors , spelling mistakes, and awkward sentence structures . Pay attention to the readability of your article by using short sentences and simple words. Incorporate LSI terms in your editing process to optimize your article for search rankings.

After meticulously editing and proofreading the article, it became evident that the clarity and conciseness of the sentences enhanced the overall readability. The use of LSI terms throughout the article ensured its relevance to the topic and improved its search rankings.

9. Optimize for SEO

To maximize the visibility of your interview article, optimize it for search engines. Incorporate relevant keywords and LSI terms throughout the article, including in headings, subheadings, and paragraphs. Utilize NLP techniques to analyze the article's readability and ensure it aligns with search engine algorithms .

Example where I'm using AtOnce's AI SEO optimizer to rank higher on Google without wasting hours on research:

By strategically incorporating keywords such as "interview article," "2024," and "writing techniques," this article aims to rank high in search engine results . The use of LSI terms related to NLP and SEO further enhances its visibility and relevance to readers searching for insights on writing interview articles in 2024.

Writing an interview article in 2024 requires a combination of strategic planning , NLP techniques, and LSI terms. By thoroughly researching the interviewee, preparing a list of questions, conducting a conversational interview, and structuring the article effectively, you can create a captivating piece that engages readers and ranks high in search engine results. Incorporating quotes, providing context, including visuals, and optimizing for SEO further enhance the article's impact and visibility. With these ten examples, you are well-equipped to write an interview article that stands out in 2024.

Over 15,763 SEO agencies and brands are using AtOnce to rank higher on Google.

It lets you write hundreds of articles on any topic, giving you more clicks to your site.

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1. What is an interview article?

An interview article is a piece of writing that presents a conversation or dialogue between the interviewer and the interviewee. It aims to provide insights, opinions, and information from the interviewee on a specific topic or subject.

2. How do I start writing an interview article?

To start writing an interview article, you should first choose a relevant and interesting topic. Then, identify potential interviewees who have expertise or experience related to the topic. Once you have selected an interviewee, prepare a list of questions to ask during the interview. Conduct the interview, take notes or record it, and then organize the information into a coherent article.

3. Can you provide some examples of interview articles?

Certainly! Here are a few examples of interview articles: - 'An Exclusive Interview with Bestselling Author John Smith' - 'In Conversation with Renowned Scientist Dr. Jane Johnson' - 'A Candid Interview with Award-Winning Actor Michael Davis' These examples showcase different interview styles and topics, providing valuable insights and perspectives from the interviewees.

Asim Akhtar

Asim is the CEO & founder of AtOnce. After 5 years of marketing & customer service experience, he's now using Artificial Intelligence to save people time.

How to Write an Interview Article: A Comprehensive Guide

Writing an interview article can be an engaging and informative way to share someone's story or expertise with your readers. Whether you're a journalist, a blogger, or simply interested in profiling someone you admire, conducting and writing up interviews requires a specific approach. In this comprehensive guide, we will outline the key steps and considerations to help you write a compelling interview article.

First and foremost, it is important to plan your interview. Identify the purpose and angle of your article, and determine the type of questions you want to ask. A well-prepared interview will yield better results and provide you with the material needed to craft an engaging narrative. Research your interviewee's background, accomplishments, and past work to ensure that your questions are relevant and thought-provoking.

Next, during the interview, create a comfortable and friendly environment that encourages open dialogue. Active listening is key, so make sure to focus on your subject's responses and ask follow-up questions to delve deeper into their thoughts and experiences. Taking notes or recording the interview (with permission) can help you capture the details accurately and avoid any misinterpretations later on.

Once the interview is complete, it's time to organize your material and start creating your article. Begin with a captivating introduction that grabs the reader's attention and provides context for the interview. Use quotes directly from the interviewee to add authenticity and voice. Structure the article in a logical and coherent manner, highlighting the most compelling parts of the conversation while ensuring a smooth flow of information.

By following these guidelines and putting in the necessary effort, you can create an interview article that engages your readers, sheds light on intriguing stories, and offers valuable insights. So let's dive into the details of this comprehensive guide and unlock the secrets of writing an excellent interview article.# Choosing the Right Interviewee

When writing an interview article, selecting the right interviewee is crucial to ensure a successful and informative piece. The interviewee's expertise, relevance to the topic, and ability to provide insightful responses all play a significant role in shaping the quality and credibility of the article. Here are some key considerations when choosing the right interviewee.

1. Identify the Target Audience

Before identifying potential interviewees, it is essential to understand the target audience of the article. Consider who will be reading the piece and what their interests and needs are. This will help narrow down the pool of potential interviewees by ensuring they can provide the necessary expertise and insights that resonate with the readership.

2. Expertise and Knowledge

Choose an interviewee who possesses expertise and in-depth knowledge about the subject matter. Look for individuals who have a proven track record in the field, such as industry leaders, renowned professionals, or recognized researchers. Their experience and expertise will lend credibility and authority to the article.

3. Relevance and Uniqueness

Ensure that the interviewee's background and experiences align with the focus of the article. It is essential to select someone whose insights and perspectives will add value and bring a unique angle to the topic. This will differentiate the article from others and make it more engaging for the readers.

4. Availability and Willingness

Consider the availability and willingness of the potential interviewee to participate in the interview. It is important to reach out to individuals who are open to sharing their thoughts and can commit to the interview process. This will facilitate smooth communication and allow for a productive exchange of ideas.

5. Diversity and Multiple Perspectives

To provide a well-rounded and comprehensive view of the topic, consider including interviewees with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. This will enrich the article and offer readers a more holistic understanding of the subject matter. Be mindful of representing different genders, cultures, and experiences whenever applicable and beneficial to the article.

Remember, selecting the right interviewee is a critical step in creating a successful interview article. By considering the target audience, expertise, relevance, availability, and diversity, one can ensure the interviewee's contributions enhance the quality and appeal of the content.

Preparing for the Interview

When it comes to writing an interview article, proper preparation is key. Thoroughly preparing beforehand will ensure that the interview is productive and yields valuable insights. This section will outline the essential steps to take in order to prepare for an interview effectively.

Research the interviewee : Start by researching the person you will be interviewing. Familiarize yourself with their background, achievements, and any relevant work they have done. This will not only help you formulate relevant questions but also demonstrate your knowledge and professionalism during the interview.

Determine the objective : Clarify the purpose of the interview article. Identify what you want to achieve through this interview, whether it's sharing the interviewee's expertise, gathering unique insights, or capturing their personal journey. Defining this objective will help you structure the interview and shape the questions accordingly.

Create a list of questions : Develop a comprehensive list of questions that align with your objective. Begin with broader, open-ended questions and gradually move towards more specific ones. This will allow the interviewee to open up and provide detailed responses. Ensure that your questions are well-researched, relevant, and thought-provoking.

Consider the interview format : Determine the format of the interview article based on the available resources and the interviewee's preferences. It could be an in-person, phone, or video interview. Each format has its own unique advantages, so choose the one that fits best given the circumstances.

Plan the logistics : Take care of the logistics in advance to avoid any last-minute issues. Arrange a suitable time and location for the interview if it is an in-person meeting. If it's a remote interview, ensure that you have a stable internet connection and test the equipment beforehand to avoid technical glitches.

Prepare a backup plan : It's always good to have a contingency plan in case of unexpected situations. Prepare additional questions in case the interview is cut short or certain topics are off-limits. This will ensure that you can still gather valuable information even if the interview doesn't go exactly as planned.

By following these steps and investing time in thorough preparation, you can set yourself up for a successful interview. The more prepared you are, the better the quality of the interview article will be, leading to a more engaging and informative piece for your readers.

Conducting the Interview

In the process of writing an interview article, conducting a successful interview is crucial to gather the necessary information and insights. Here are some key steps to ensure a productive and informative interview:

Research the interviewee : Before the interview, conduct thorough research on the interviewee to gain a deep understanding of their background, expertise, and accomplishments. This will help you ask relevant and thought-provoking questions that bring out unique insights.

Prepare a list of questions : Develop a list of well-crafted, open-ended questions that encourage the interviewee to share valuable insights and experiences. Start with general questions to create a comfortable atmosphere and then transition to more specific and in-depth queries. It can be beneficial to outline the order of the questions to ensure a smooth flow during the interview.

Choose an appropriate location : Selecting the right location for the interview is crucial. Ensure that it offers privacy and minimal distractions. Depending on the situation, you can conduct the interview in person, over the phone, or via a video conferencing platform. Make sure to test the technology in advance to avoid any technical glitches.

Set up the interview : Once the location is determined, schedule the interview with the interviewee. Clearly communicate the purpose, format, and estimated duration of the interview. If necessary, request any supporting materials or data from the interviewee in advance to facilitate a more informed discussion.

Establish rapport : Begin the interview by establishing a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Introduce yourself, provide a brief overview of the interview purpose, and discuss any necessary ground rules. Building rapport will make the interviewee feel more comfortable, increasing the likelihood of open and honest responses.

Active listening : During the interview, actively listen to the interviewee's responses. Take notes to ensure accuracy and capture key points for reference during the article writing process. Pay attention to non-verbal cues, tone, and emotion, as they can provide valuable context.

Encourage elaboration : Encourage the interviewee to elaborate on their answers by asking follow-up questions that delve deeper into their thoughts, opinions, and experiences. This will help extract more detailed and insightful information, making the interview article richer and more engaging.

Respect boundaries : While it's essential to ask thought-provoking questions, it's equally crucial to respect boundaries. Avoid prying into personal matters or asking overly sensitive questions that may make the interviewee uncomfortable. Maintain professionalism and ensure a positive experience for both parties.

By following these steps, one can conduct an effective interview that yields valuable insights and allows for the creation of an engaging and informative interview article.

Taking Accurate Notes

When conducting an interview, taking accurate notes is a crucial skill that every interviewer should master. Good note-taking ensures that the information gathered during the interview is properly recorded and can be effectively used while writing the interview article . Here are some tips to help you take accurate notes during an interview:

Come prepared : Before the interview, familiarize yourself with the subject and prepare a list of questions. This will help you to stay on track during the conversation and capture the essential details.

Use abbreviations and symbols : To save time and keep up with the flow of conversation, develop your own set of shorthand or abbreviations. This will help you jot down key points quickly without missing important information.

Focus on key details : Instead of trying to write down everything word for word, listen actively and concentrate on capturing the most important information . Note down quotes, unique insights, statistics, or any other noteworthy details that will strengthen your article.

Use bullet points and headings : Organize your notes using bullet points and headings to create a clear structure that will simplify the writing process later. This allows you to refer back to specific sections quickly.

Be accurate and objective : Ensure the accuracy of your notes by paying attention to details and avoiding assumptions or subjective interpretations. Write down what was actually said and avoid adding your own opinions or biases.

Ask for clarifications : If any statements or ideas are unclear, don't hesitate to ask the interviewee to clarify. This will ensure that you accurately understand and represent their views in your article.

Review and verify after the interview : Take the time to review your notes immediately after the interview while the conversation is still fresh in your mind. If there are any doubts or missing details, reach out to the interviewee for clarification.

Remember, the quality of your notes directly impacts the quality of your interview article . By adopting effective note-taking strategies, you will be able to accurately capture the essence of the interview and present it in a coherent and engaging manner.

Organizing the Interview Transcript

The interview transcript is a valuable resource that needs to be organized properly to ensure a comprehensive and coherent interview article. Here are some essential steps to help you organize the interview transcript effectively:

Step 1: Transcribing the Interview

Transcribe the interview in its entirety, ensuring that every word and nuance is accurately documented. Use a reliable transcription tool or service to assist you in this process. Accuracy is key to maintain the integrity of the interview and avoid misinterpretations.

Step 2: Creating an Outline

Review the transcript and create an outline based on the flow of the conversation. Identify the key points, topics, and subtopics discussed during the interview. Highlight significant quotes or noteworthy information as you go along.

Step 3: Structuring the Article

Divide the interview article into sections or paragraphs according to the topics and subtopics identified in the outline. Use descriptive headings to guide readers through the different sections of the interview. This will help break down the content into digestible segments and make it easier for readers to follow.

Step 4: Utilizing Quotes

Integrate relevant and impactful quotes from the interview throughout the article. Ensure that the quotes are properly attributed to the interviewee and are appropriately cited. Quotes not only add credibility to the article but also provide a personal and authentic touch to the narrative.

Step 5: Enhancing Readability

To enhance the readability of the interview article, consider utilizing bulleted lists , short and concise sentences, and markdown tags as necessary. This will help readers quickly grasp the main points and key takeaways from the interview.

Step 6: Review and Edit

Before finalizing the interview article, carefully review and edit the content. Ensure proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling throughout the article. Also, pay attention to the overall flow and coherence of the information presented.

Organizing the interview transcript is a fundamental step in creating a comprehensive and engaging interview article. By following these steps, you can effectively structure your content and present the interview in a clear and coherent manner.

Creating an Engaging Introduction

The introduction of an interview article plays a crucial role in capturing the interest of readers and setting the tone for the entire piece. A well-crafted introduction not only provides a glimpse into the topic and purpose of the interview but also entices readers to continue reading. Here are some essential tips to help you create an engaging introduction for your interview article.

Craft a captivating opening line : Begin your introduction with a strong hook that grabs the reader's attention. Consider using a thought-provoking question, a startling fact, or a compelling anecdote related to the interview topic. This will pique readers' curiosity and make them eager to dive deeper into the content.

Introduce the interviewee : After the opening hook, introduce the person being interviewed. Provide a brief background, highlighting their expertise, achievements, or any relevant qualifications that lend credibility to their opinions. This helps establish the interviewee's authority on the subject matter and gives readers a reason to value their insights.

Highlight the significance of the interview topic : Clearly communicate why the interview topic is important and relevant. Explain how the interviewee's perspectives and experiences can shed light on the issue at hand. By emphasizing the relevance of the topic, you help readers understand the value they can gain from reading the interview.

Preview intriguing questions : Give readers a sneak peek into the interview by mentioning a few intriguing questions that will be addressed. This creates anticipation and provides readers with a glimpse of what they can expect from the rest of the article. However, be cautious not to give away all the information in the introduction, as readers need a reason to continue reading the full interview.

Remember, the introduction is not the place to delve deeply into the interview content. Its primary purpose is to engage readers and set the stage for what is to come. By incorporating these strategies into your introduction, you can capture readers' interest, compel them to keep reading, and ensure they continue to gain valuable insights from the interview article.

Crafting Compelling Questions

Crafting compelling questions is an essential skill for writing an engaging interview article. The questions you ask will determine the depth and quality of the information you gather from your interviewee. Here are some tips to help you create impactful questions that will captivate your readers:

Prepare in advance : Before conducting the interview, thoroughly research the topic and the interviewee. This will help you come up with informed and relevant questions. Familiarize yourself with the interviewee's background, accomplishments, and expertise to guide your line of questioning.

Start with broad questions : Begin the interview with broader questions that allow the interviewee to provide an overview. This can help establish context and provide valuable background information. These initial questions also help build rapport and alleviate any nervousness the interviewee may feel.

Ask open-ended questions : Open-ended questions encourage the interviewee to provide detailed and thoughtful responses. Avoid questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Instead, ask questions that start with words like what, how, or why. These types of questions prompt the interviewee to delve deeper into their thoughts and experiences.

Tailor questions to the interviewee : Consider the interviewee's background, expertise, and unique experiences while formulating your questions. Personalize the questions to make them relevant and interesting to the interviewee. This demonstrates that you have done your research and shows respect for their expertise.

Probe further : Don't be afraid to ask follow-up questions to delve deeper into a particular topic or to clarify any ambiguities in the interviewee's response. Active listening is crucial here. Pay attention to what the interviewee is saying and ask for additional details or examples when necessary.

Be respectful and empathetic : Maintain a friendly and respectful tone throughout the interview. Remember that your goal is to create a comfortable atmosphere that encourages the interviewee to share their insights openly. Show genuine interest in their responses and avoid interrupting or challenging them.

By following these guidelines, you can craft compelling questions that elicit insightful responses from your interviewee. These questions will form the backbone of your interview article, ensuring that it provides valuable information and engages your readers.

Structuring the Article

Organizing your interview article is crucial to ensuring that it is clear, engaging, and informative. This section will guide you through the process of structuring your interview article effectively.

Introduction : Start your article with a compelling introduction that grabs the reader's attention and provides a brief overview of the interview. This should include the interviewee's name, their expertise or background, and the purpose of the interview.

Background Information : After the introduction, provide some background information about the interviewee and their relevance to the topic. This will help readers understand why the interviewee's insights are valuable and build credibility.

Interview Questions : Present the interview questions in a logical order. Group similar questions together, and consider arranging them in a way that builds upon the interviewee's responses. It's essential to include a variety of questions that cover different aspects of the topic to provide a comprehensive understanding.

Quotations and Paraphrases : Throughout the article, include relevant quotations or paraphrases from the interviewee to support your points. Use quotation marks for direct quotes and ensure that you accurately represent the interviewee's words. Incorporating their unique voice adds authenticity to the article.

Transition Sentences : Use transition sentences to smoothly move from one topic or question to another. Transitional phrases like In addition, Furthermore, or Moreover, can be used to guide the reader through different sections of the interview.

Formatting : Break up the text into smaller paragraphs, using subheadings where necessary. This makes it easier for readers to navigate the article and find specific information. It also enhances readability and encourages engagement.

Visual Elements : Including relevant images, infographics, or charts can enhance the visual appeal of your article and help illustrate key points. Ensure that any visual elements are directly related to the interview content and provide additional value to the reader.

Conclusion : Wrap up your article with a concise conclusion that summarizes the main points discussed in the interview. You can also provide your own insights or present a call-to-action, encouraging readers to delve further into the subject or seek additional resources.

Structuring your interview article effectively helps readers navigate the content, comprehend the information, and stay engaged throughout. By following these guidelines, you will create a well-organized and compelling interview article that will inform and captivate your audience.

Adding Context and Background Information

Providing context and background information is an essential aspect of writing a compelling interview article. This section helps set the stage for the interview, offers readers a deeper understanding of the topic, and enhances the overall reader experience. Here are some valuable tips for adding context and background information effectively:

Research the Topic : Before conducting an interview, it is crucial to thoroughly research the subject matter. This allows the writer to have a solid understanding of the topic, enabling them to provide accurate and relevant information to the readers.

Gather General Information : Begin the article by introducing the topic briefly. Provide general information about the subject, highlighting key facts, trends, or events related to the interview. This helps readers grasp the significance of the interview and its relevance in a broader context.

Highlight Relevant Statistics : Numbers and statistics can add credibility and make the article more informative. Identify key statistics related to the topic and present them in a concise and easily digestible manner. Use markdown tables to organize statistical data effectively.

|Statistic |Percentage | |--- |--- | |Market Growth Rate in 2020 |10% | |Number of Users Worldwide |1.5 billion | |Average Monthly Revenue |$500,000 |

Provide Historical Background : Exploring the historical aspects of the topic can give readers a comprehensive perspective. Briefly discuss the evolution, milestones, or significant events related to the subject. This historical context aids in understanding the current state of affairs.

Include Expert Opinions : Incorporating expert opinions or quotes helps add authority and diverse viewpoints to the article. These insights can be derived from various reputable sources such as industry leaders, scholars, or professionals in the field. Make sure to attribute the opinions to the respective experts.

Discuss Recent Developments : To keep the article current and relevant, mention recent developments or trends related to the topic. This helps readers understand the dynamic nature of the subject matter and its impact on the interviewee's perspectives or insights.

Incorporating context and background information enhances the overall quality of an interview article. By presenting readers with a well-rounded understanding of the topic, the article becomes more engaging, informative, and valuable to the audience.

In conclusion, writing an interview article requires careful planning, thorough research, and effective interviewing skills. By following the comprehensive guide outlined in this article, writers can produce compelling and informative articles that engage readers and provide valuable insights from the interviewee.

Here are a few key takeaways:

Preparation is key : Before conducting an interview, it is crucial to prepare a list of well-thought-out questions that align with the article's theme or purpose. This ensures that the interview stays focused and enables writers to extract relevant and meaningful information from the subject.

Active listening : During the interview, actively listen to the interviewee's responses, allowing for follow-up questions and creating a conversational flow. This not only helps to build rapport but also elicits more insightful answers, helping to enrich the article.

Accuracy and verification : Fact-checking is of paramount importance in interview articles. Ensure that all information presented is accurate and supported by credible sources. Where applicable, cross-referencing the interviewee's statements with other reliable sources can help maintain the article's integrity.

Structuring the article : A well-organized article delivers information in a logical and digestible manner. Start with an attention-grabbing introduction, provide context, present the interviewee's responses, and conclude with a concise summary. Using subheadings and bullet points can help break down complex information, making it easier for readers to follow.

Editing and proofreading : Once the interview article is written, dedicate time to thoroughly edit and proofread for clarity, grammar, and coherence. This ensures a polished, professional finish that enhances the overall reading experience.

By employing these practices, writers can produce interview articles that captivate readers, provide valuable insights, and establish credibility within their chosen niche. With determination and practice, one can master the art of writing interview articles and make a lasting impact in the realm of journalism, blogging, or content creation.

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Write an A+ Interview Paper Using Our Tips and Examples

06 September, 2021

13 minutes read

Author:  Josh Carlyle

You will quickly find yourself with your back to the wall once your teacher assigns you an interview paper. Studying is often a headache by itself, and now you have to conduct interviews. Worse yet, you probably have no idea how you can do this. Luckily, we will tell you how to write an interview paper step by step in this comprehensive guide. So prepare your favorite drink and learn how to write a top-notch interview paper.

What is an Interview Paper?

An interview paper provides an expert opinion on a specific issue. In essence, it is an interview transcript inserted somewhere between the introduction and conclusion of an academic piece.

How long should it be? It depends on the topic and the length of your interview, but most papers are within the length of 2,000 – 5,000 words. What things should you consider before writing an interview paper in the first place? Let’s check them out below.

General Aspects of Writing an Interview Paper

Academic papers require you to provide arguments based on studies, research pieces, statistics, etc. But an interview paper is different – for this type of essay, you will develop assumptions around an expert’s opinion.

Let’s imagine your essay question reads the following: “Should we ban abortions?” If you write an interview paper, you should ask someone high-powered for their consideration. Let them be an executive director of the American Gynecological & Obstetrical Society.

You would reach them via email or phone or whatever communication channel you prefer and conduct an interview. Afterward, you would put all your findings on paper.

But in practice, writing an interview paper involves many more complexities and challenges, like planning, topic research , drafting, etc.

Let’s speak straight facts: nobody will reschedule their week to meet you because you need to do some homework. You’re one of the millions of students, and the local governor or a famous scientist won’t give you an interview nine times out of ten.

So you would want to target someone less busy, like professors from other faculties of your college or some researchers within your academic environment. Hunting a bigger fish is pointless unless you’re a well-established journalist working for a popular media channel. If you struggle to find someone within your college/university, you can contact people from your circle.

Writing Outline and Structure of an Interview Paper

 As you know, a typical paper consists of three parts:

• Introduction. This part includes background information, the hook, the thesis statement, and the transition.
• Body. It is the longest part of the paper consisting of several paragraphs. It should contain the actual interview.
• Conclusion. The final part summarizes the considerations and insights of your essay.

The question is: ‘where should you put an interview transcript and how do you do this?’

To answer this question, you need to come up with the interview papers format in the first place. There are several of them:

The narrative format implies that you can use either direct or indirect speech when referring to your interviewee. If you choose this path, you can stick to a 5-paragraph essay structure, retell the considerations of your interviewee, and cite their words here and there at your discretion.

You can also choose this format if you contact several people. Check what a narrative interview paper structure looks like when you reach out to several people:

• Introduction.
• Paragraph #1 – the first interviewee’s perspective.
• Paragraph #2 – the second interviewee’s opinion.
• Paragraph #3 – the third interviewee’s thoughts.
• Conclusion.

Alternatively, you can dedicate each paragraph to a particular idea of one person.

“Question and answer” will suit your needs perfectly if you interview one person. It is the simplest format used in online magazines, news reports, and other media. Your interview paper outline will look like this:

• Introduction
• Question #1 – Answer #1
• Question #2 – Answer #2
• Question #3 – Answer #3
• Question #4/5/6/etc. – Answer #4/5/6/etc.
• Interview analysis. You may include your thoughts on the subject matter.

Conversational

Conversational style is informal, and you can use either first-person or second-person narrative and follow a typical 5-paragraph paper structure. But writing interview papers in this lousy style might be perplexing, especially if you deal with this task for the first time.

We advise you to try the Q&A format because it’s the simplest one and takes the least time. Just imagine how much time your paper writing will take if you decide to interview three or five people.

How to Start an Interview Paper?

If you have no idea how to start an interview paper, choose the topic first. Selecting a topic for your interview paper is not a big deal, but you should keep in mind that you may not find appropriate interviewees for it.

Let’s imagine you want to explore whether the government should force people to get vaccines. This topic implies that you need to contact authorities. It might be a local lawyer, governor, or executive director of a local hospital. Well, the chances are these people will politely refuse to give an interview for your homework.

But if you choose to investigate how lockdown impacts intellectual workers, you can contact your friends or family members who work at home. In other words, it’s better to choose topics that reflect the experiences of ordinary people rather than the opinions of untouchable experts.

Asking people for their opinion about well-known facts like the Earth’s shape is a bad idea. You would want to choose high-profile debatable topics you can actually discuss.

Establish the Goal of Your Interview Essay

You have to establish the goal of your essay before researching the topic. For this, ask yourself: “What message should your interview essay deliver?” Sometimes, a topic of your choice might already explain the purpose of your essay.

Conduct Research

Interviewing someone implies that you should ask questions. But you will fail to do so if you know little to nothing about your topic. So read some case studies, news, articles, etc. Once you get the picture of your subject matter, you will come up with dozens of interview questions.

Get to Know Your Interviewee

A good interviewer always refers to the life and experience of their interviewee. If you’re lucky to work with someone you can read about on the Internet, find out as much information about them as possible. If your interviewee publishes any books, articles, or studies, you will better know them as well.

The more you know about the person, the more interview questions you can come up with. You can ask them whether the Internet tells their true story: “Is it true that you, Mr. Interviewee, support flat earthers?”

Draft Your Interview Questions

If you want a person to share their in-depth vision of the topic, you need to ask both open-ended and close-ended (“yes/no”) questions. However, you may struggle to prepare interview questions. Many students get stuck during this stage. To overcome this block, you need to learn some types of interview questions:

• Opinion – What do you think of this topic?
• Behavioral – What would you do in this situation?
• Experience and knowledge – What do you know about the subject?
• Background – How are you connected to the subject? What is your age, occupation, etc?
• Emotional – How do you feel about the subject?
• Sensory – What does the subject taste and feel like?

You can also think of the questions following the interviewee’s “yes” and “no” answers.

Tips for Conducting a Successful Interview

These four tips will help you conduct a productive interview on the first try:

1. Plan Your Meeting

Note that you want to interview a person in a quiet place so that nobody will distract you. This might be some cozy book store or a café. Or, you can arrange an online meeting. Make sure you have at least one hour for the interview.

2. Rehearse a bit

If you will conduct your first-ever interview, you want to practice with your friends/significant other/ family in the first place. This approach will help you identify what stage of your upcoming interview may challenge you the most.

3. Record Your Interview

You will forget about 50% of the information within an hour once you finish the interview. So don’t rely on your memory − bring a recorder instead. Why not take notes? You wouldn’t want to go red while asking your interviewee to repeat what they have just said or wait until you write down their answers.

4. Talk to Your Interviewee for a While Before You Begin

Speaking to someone you don’t know might be uncomfortable. You don’t have to attack them with your interview questions straightaway. Instead, you can exchange some casual phrases or discuss the weather. This will help you relieve stress and get comfortable with each other.

5. Explain Your Interview Protocol

It’s better to explain to your interviewee how you will conduct your interview. Tell them that you will use a recorder and introduce the discussion topic.

Interview Papers Format

In academic writing, you have to explain the purpose of your interview and introduce your interviewee in a specific “scholarly” format. The APA format interview paper has the following requirements:

• Use 12-point Times New Roman.
• Write a title page.
• Use double spacing.
• Introduce your interviewee and provide the background information – explain why this person is suitable for the interview. Mention their name and qualifications.
• Use direct quotes if you cite some facts provided by the interviewee.
• Use block quotes for citations longer than 40 words.

How to Write a Title Page?

The title of your paper must include your name, your institution, department, the course name and number, the teacher’s name, and the assignment date. The rules of writing the title page are the following:

• The title page must be numbered.
• Capitalize all major words in your title and make it bold.
• Place the title of the essay three or four lines down the top of the page.
• There must be one empty line before the student’s name.

Interview Papers Examples

If you’re searching for an interview essay example – check several samples below:

• A narrative interview essay .
• A Q&A interview format paper.
• An interview with a scientist.

Interview Papers Writing Tips

The following writing tips will help you deliver the first-class interview paper:

• Write the introduction at the end. Once you finish your essay, you will likely reconsider some ideas you had before you began. They will help you frame your interview essay with a captivating introduction and conclusion.
• Give yourself a break after finishing your final draft. This will help you look at your paper with a fresh pair of eyes once you start editing.
• Edit one type of error at a time. For example, you can reduce logical errors first and switch to grammatical mistakes afterward.
• Use an active voice. If active voice makes your sentence shorter, use it without hesitation.
• Check for any sample interview paper to decide on the interview questions. Perhaps, some pieces will spark your interest.

Writing Help by Handmadewriting

An interview paper doesn’t seem that intimidating once you learn how to write it step by step. First, you have to choose the subject that allows you to interview ordinary people rather than hard-to-reach ones. Then, you need to research your topic, conduct an interview, and write a paper.

You can get an A+ for this assignment with enough effort and dedication. But a doable task doesn’t necessarily mean that you must do it by yourself. If you have plenty of other assignments to do, you can ask our essay writers to craft an exemplary interview paper for you. For this, you can place an order on our website, and we will do all the dirty work.

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Knowledge Base > Magazines > How To Write a Remarkable Interview Article for a Magazine

How To Write a Remarkable Interview Article for a Magazine

It is hard to imagine a good magazine without interviews – it allows you to learn more about a person, their thoughts, and experiences. Almost every magazine is in a business where there are interesting people you can learn from.

The key to writing a good interview article is careful planning and execution. Many master interviewers know how to cover themselves and get the most out of an interviewee. No matter who the subject is – an expert, a well-known celebrity, or an English teacher who’s a mentor for the young – the goal is always the same: to interest readers and show them the unique personality and point of view of the person being interviewed.

If you want to create a magazine with essays, interview articles, descriptions, and news pieces, you might consider publishing it using Publuu’s online digital magazine maker. Thanks to our interactive functions you can make your interviews stand out and be enriched by multimedia content.

In this article, we will look in detail at how to write an interview article that will engage readers and grab their attention. We will talk about what an interview is and how to write one. We’ll also give you tips and tricks to make your work better and edit the entire interview.

What is an interview article?

A magazine interview article is a type of media piece that presents different perspectives and viewpoints through a conversation with an expert or celebrity. An interview can be a transcript of the dialogue, whether as a whole or just excerpts and direct quotes from the subject. The text of the interview is based on information based on your research, gathered from one or more conversations with relevant people or experts in a particular field.

For professionals, interview articles serve to give readers a deeper understanding of critical topics through direct contact with the expert’s words. For example, the exact details of some new software can be explained by its developer. Casual readers can learn more about the private lives and ideas of their celebrity idols or just interesting people.

A well-crafted interview article engages the reader, drawing them in as if they were being interviewed. To achieve this, the article must capture the reader’s attention from the very beginning. It is important to choose an interviewee who has a wide range of knowledge and can provide specific information on the topic under discussion.

How do you structure an interview article?

Once you have completed the actual interview process and have it recorded on the recording device, you can organize the information you have gathered.

Start with an introduction that grabs the reader’s attention and explains the topic and the purpose of the interview article. Explain who is your interviewee and what’s their background research and expertise. You need to be aware that your readers might be not as informed as the person you’re interviewing, so simplify things a little bit. Be sure to add relevant statistics, facts, and event descriptions that make the facts in the interview article clearer and engage readers interested in the conversation!

When planning an interview article, be sure to present interview questions in a logical sequence, including all the specific questions and ones that delve deeper into the topic. Make sure that you do your research and don’t be afraid to ask the interviewee for clarification.

When writing down your subject’s answers, you can paraphrase and summarize responses, as long as you preserve the gist and all the relevant details. Remember to present the interview for authorization. Highlight crucial points and don’t be afraid to use quotes and images to highlight your article.

Designing the appearance of your interview article is also an important part of the interviewing process. You need to choose a good layout that will showcase direct quotes, the point of the entire conversation, and show the insight of the interviewee. If you’re new to the desktop publishing process, you can visit our list of 10 best free magazine fonts and learn how to use typeface to your reader’s attention.

How to write an interview article in 8 simple steps

Choose your subject.

Choosing the right topic for the interview essay sets the tone for the whole thing. You should interview someone who knows a lot about the topic you want to learn more about, has a lot of experience in it, or has a unique point of view on the subject. For example, if you’re writing an interview about the future of sustainable energy, you might choose a well-known environmental scientist who has done groundbreaking research in the field. Or you might choose a successful business owner who has established a thriving green energy company with fresh ideas and inventions!

Do background research

Before you conduct an interview, you need to study a lot about the topic you want to cover. It is also good to know the person’s past, his achievements, and what he is good at. Based on this, you can formulate good questions during the interview.

Review documents, articles, and previous interviews with the interviewee to learn more about her work and previous job achievement. Make sure you are up to date on events, trends, and issues related to the subject of the article.

Come up with creative questions

To get good, interesting answers from your interviewee, you need to come up with original and thought-provoking questions. When asking specific questions, think about what makes your topic unique and what your readers are interested in. Try to ask open-ended questions that will prompt the person you are talking to to give thoughtful, detailed answers. For example, to a renewable energy expert, you might ask, “What new technologies do you think will have the biggest impact on the renewable energy industry in the next ten years?” – this is a good start to the topic so you can move on and discuss individual new inventions.

Plan your interview

Before you conduct an interview, it is important to plan how it will go and what will be said. Choose whether the interview will be in person, by phone, or by video call. Set a date and time that suits both you and the person you want to talk to and make note of any time constraints. Prepare any tools, such as voice recorders or note-taking tools, that you will need to make a complete and accurate record of the conversation. You can also prepare a list of questions that the interviewee will answer by email if the article needs to be edited.

Interview your subject

Talking about the subject is the most important part of your article. During the interview, it’s important to get to know the person and make them feel at ease so they can give open and honest answers. Listen carefully to what the interviewee is saying, and don’t be afraid to ask additional questions if you want to learn more or gain more clarity. Remember that you are interviewing on behalf of your readers. Take notes and ask more questions about things that seem interesting or need more detail.

Transcript your interview

After the interview, it is important to write down the speech so that you have an accurate record of what the person said. You can type up the chat manually or use tools that will do it for you automatically – but in this case, be sure to review the whole thing ii correct any mistakes. The process involves reviewing the transcript, writing down what was said, and making any corrections you need for clarity and accuracy. Don’t be afraid to edit and simplify certain statements so that the reader can read what is meant.

Determine the format of your article

Consider how best to show the interview article. It may be a simple question-and-answer style, in which the questions and answers are written word for word in third-person style, but this is not the only option. You can combine the interview with a narrative or article that presents a certain issue – for example, you can discuss each source of sustainable energy, and then add a comment from your interviewee. Or apply the narrative style, in which the subject’s answers are woven into the story. Choose a format that fits the tone and goals of your article and the tastes and expectations of the people you want to read.

Create an article draft

Now that you have everything you need, you can start plotting your interview. Start by arranging the information in a logical order, prepare an introduction ii present your interviewee’s character. After the interview, you can add your analysis and interpretation of the interview and additional information that will be relevant to the reader.

Revise, review, and polish

Once you have completed the first draft of the text, you need to keep working on it. Cut out any content that is repetitive or not needed, and make sure that each line contributes something to the text as a whole. You need to be your editor. Review the text to make it clearer and more logical, to make sure the information makes sense and that the respondent’s answers are shown correctly. Also, look for language and spelling errors and make any necessary changes to make the text easy to read. Only then can you show the text to the editor.

An interview is an effective way for readers to learn about different ideas and views by talking to experts or well-known people. A well-written interview requires careful planning and preparation, from getting the reader’s attention to organizing the information and asking questions that will make the reader think. With the help of Publuu’s online digital magazine creation tool, multimedia elements can be added to interviews to make them even more interesting and enjoyable to watch.

With a rough draft, rewriting, and polishing of the text and feedback from the editor, the final piece will be clear, logical, and interesting to readers. By combining the art of storytelling with the insights gained from interviews, you can inspire readers to learn more about a topic and look at it from different points of view. You may be also interested in: Best Newspaper Fonts for Your Headlines Online Magazine Maker – 7 Simple Tips!

Jakub Osiejewski is an experienced freelance writer and editor. He has written for various publications, including magazines, newspapers and websites. He is also a skilled layout graphic designer and knows exactly how to create visually appealing and informative PDFs and flipbooks!

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How to write an interview article for a magazine

If someone asked me what is my favorite type of article to read, it would be interview articles for sure. There is just something so personal and engaging to them that tickles my curiosity buds while still providing a fair amount of interesting information. It can be quite challenging to write this type of article, so here are some tips and tricks that will help you in your quest on how to write an interview article for a magazine. And not just any but the perfect one.

Before we get to the practical tips, make sure you have a reliable laptop for writers , since it will save you a lot of trouble down the road. If you are more of a visual learner, there’s a video you can watch at the end of this article. Let’s dive in!

Things to keep in mind when writing an interview article

1. choose your questions wisely.

This is probably one of the most important steps in the process of writing an interview article as it all starts with asking the right questions to the interviewee. First, you will need to do a lot of research work and collect as much information as you can on the person you are going to interview. You can use tools like Evernote and OneNote to keep track of all the information so you can refer back to them easily down the road. You can either read their biography, previous interviews or read about their current projects, interests and the list can go on. This will not only give you a solid background of the interviewee but will also make you aware of what has already been written, so that you can put a spotlight on some interesting and fresh information. No one wants to read the same facts about someone over and over again, this is why it’s best to find new topics to tackle. And speaking about topics, try to choose a focus topic for the interview. That being said, it’s not a rule you need to take literally, but it’s recommended you stick with a main topic so that you’re not all over the place with your questions. Choose an aspect of the interviewees life that is both remarkable and fits the interests of the reader. Or seek a certain topic worth discussing and develop some questions around it. You can always add a few extra questions still related to the main topic, but with a twist, maybe something unexpected that requires a more spontaneous answer to spice things up for the reader.

Tip: Select questions for interview that best fit your approach. Avoid typical interview questions and ask questions that are intriguing. For example, instead of asking, “How did you achieve your success in tennis?” ask, “They call you the ‘next Federer’ … what three qualities do you think you share with the Swiss tennis player?”

2. Structure of the article

Once you have narrowed down the questions you wish to address and have conducted the interview ( here you can find a comprehensive guide on how to interview someone for an article ), the next step is to actually write the article. Here is where you have endless options and can get your creative juices to flow in terms of how you wish to structure the article. If there isn’t a specific code you need to follow, I would say that these days there isn’t one winning rule. Most writers feel the need to post the picture, questions and answers in a logical sequence. Which is not bad, but then again chances are this makes for a rather boring interview article.

Before anything else, you need to choose the perspective from which you wish to write the article. There are roughly three perspectives you can use:

• Literal : write down the questions, followed by the literal/ only slightly rephrased answers (the classic Q and A);
• Narrative : describe what the interviewee says in third person;
• Hybrid : leave out the questions and combine narrative statements with direct quotes.

You can stick with one of the first two perspectives for the entire article, or you can use the hybrid one depending on the dynamic and tone you want to give to the article.

Also, make sure you have a strong start and ending as these are the pillars of your structure. Choose the most provocative questions and answers to be featured at the beginning and at the end so that this way you keep the interest of the reader from start to finish. Moreover, you can insert some of the main answers as quotes to break the article and make it less boring.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the actual interview might be full of half sentences, unspoken words, or sudden changes of topic. When doing your after-call work reviewing video and notes of your conversation, you’ll inevitably realize something: to make the interview readable, you’ll have to rephrase most sentences. And when it comes to rephrasing, there’s a simple rule of thumb:

Rephrase as much as you like, but don’t change the message.

Nonetheless, try and make it attractive . Starting from the title and ending with the last answer, always keep in mind this: “How can I put things so that it’s appealing for the reader?” Look for the most interesting stuff and reorder the questions of the interview if needed so that you give readers the feeling that they have just read the story of a conversation and not a cold sharp interview. Add suggestive photos, insert quotes and let your emotions guide you. Remember, you’re in complete control at this point!

Tip: Try to give the interview article some sort of narrative or structure, without making it too linear and logical. In the end, just ask yourself if it’s something you’d enjoy reading.

3. Magazine article interview examples to get inspired from

Finding it hard to be creative? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Luckily, if you’re stuck in a rut, there are plenty of magazine interview article examples on the Internet to draw inspiration from. I’ve selected a few of the ones that I have enjoyed reading, and remember, even if you’re probably never going to interview Adele or Brad Pitt, articles like this can plant an idea in your mind or awaken your creative buds. It can be anything from the title, the layout of the interview article, to the questions, the perspective from which it is written and so on. Serena Williams’ interview for Vogue , as well as Adele’s one for Vanity Fair are some impressive articles that somehow manage to bring these big stars closer to the public by sharing some candid moments and information with the readers. Brad Pitt’s interview for GQ magazine is rather an interesting one since it’s a roller coaster of perspectives, questions, emotions and quite artistic pictures that altogether reveal a different side of the actor.

However, if these interview articles are a bit too much, on our blog you can find some interviews to start with, like this one with Debbie Millman or this one featuring Jacob Cass . You’re really just one click away from a plethora of interview articles.

Tip: Don’t copy other interview articles, but use them rather as an inspiration and add the missing pieces in order to make your own greater. This is especially important when outsourcing interviews to contractors on popular freelance websites , as freelancers usually use standard content templates on many different projects due to ease of use and efficiency.

Writing an interview article can be quite challenging and overwhelming at times, but as long as you keep in mind the above-mentioned tips, you should be on a good path. And remember, there isn’t a one rule applies to all. You can make it as fun or as serious as you want. Just ask yourself at the end if it’s something you’d really enjoy reading.

27 Comments

cool reading! I agree. The most popular articles and most shared are the interview ones by far. Maybe Flipsnack could do a series of Interview articles with relevant people in the industry or most engaged or relevant Flipsnack users. Good job with this article! ;)

Hey, we’re glad you enjoyed the article! That’s a very good suggestion and definitely something we’re planing on doing this year! :)

Thanks for this post. It helped me write my first interview for my blog which received great feedback!

Thank you for your feedback, Angela! Glad to know that it was helpful!:)

REEEEEEEEEEE

very helpful

It is very helpful. This interview article is very interesting. I enjoyed reading.

Thank you for the feedback! Glad to know you’ve enjoyed it!

This is a great article. Thank you.

Thank you for your kind words!

Diana, Very informative article. I’m a novice writer, and I might be landing an article for a local publication on a demo lady at our local grocery store. I got the idea after years of stopping for a sample of cheese, or whatever, and making light conversation. One day, a small boy came up to her and handed a piece of candy, telling her he loved her. She replied, “I love you too, Eli.” She confided in me that one regular customer suffered from severe depression and told Sally that no matter what kind of day she was having, she knew she could come to the store, find Sally with her smile, and feel much better about the day and herself. I want to write about this food sample lady!! Any fun questions I could ask her? Any idea as to how I could direct this interview, focusing on one or two main ideas? Thanks!

Thank you for your kind words, Tonya and for taking the time to share this story with us. First thing that came to my mind after reading this is what Ellen DeGeneres always emphasizes in her show and not only, which is the importance of being kind one to another. I think you can focus your article on the idea that no matter where you are and what job you have (to oneself it might seem an insignificant one) you still have this power to have an impact on other people’s lives. Big or small, one can make a change in this world by practicing kindness on an everyday basis. And Sally is a very good representation of that. Some interesting questions I think you could ask her are Who or what inspires her in her day-to-day life? Or if she has any memory of an unexpected kind gesture she has received from someone? And if so, what impact did that have on her life? Depending on the tone you want to set for the article, you can ask questions in a more familiar way, such as “I’ve seen you light up the day for many customers that walk into the grocery store. Where do you draw your inspiration from to practice kindness on a regular basis?” These are just a few that came to my mind. Here’s a cool article about kindness, perhaps it helps you. Just trust your instinct and I’m sure you’ll do just fine :)

what up dawg this is a good article.

This is such a well-written article! Love the structure and the way you communicate with the reader. Good tips, will definitely use them.

Thank you, Rhea for your kind words! Glad you enjoyed it!

Someone help me my teacher is making me read this article… HELP!!!

This was a great read! I am struggling with how I can format an interview-magazine- like a story for my school. How should I start it? I have my questions listed, just wondering on how I can start it? Any tips?

Hi Regina! Thank you for your kind feedback. I’d say that once you have all the questions ready, just start writing it. Make a short introduction so that you don’t just dive in directly into the interview and from there on just do whatever feels natural. Don’t overthink! I’m sure it will turn out just great! :)

Do you have sample online interview responses? Meaning, you sent the one being interviewed a list of questions via email.

Hi Sara! We had a series of interviews on our blog and I’ve sent the questions via email to the interviewees and received their answers. You can check the final result and read some of the interviews on our blog. Here is one of them . Hope this helps! :)

This was such a useful article and thank you! I will definitely be referring to it over the next week while I complete my English assignment. Do you have any tips on how I could start my Interview? I have all the content, but I am unsure of what the best way to start it would be. Thank you again for the fantastic article.

Thank you, Holly, for your kind words! Glad you found it useful! Well, it depends on the type of interview. I’d say you could start by making a short introduction about the person you’re interviewing/ the topic (if there is a certain one). And from there on just go ahead and ask the questions. I’m sure you’ll do a great job! Best of luck! :)

Hi Diana, Thank you for this post. I will be starting a new section on my blog where I will interview Women in Business. I plan to write the articles interview style so this has been very helpful. I plan to write it Literal style. Thank you again Raheela

Hi Raheela! I’m glad you found it useful. Thank you for your kind feedback and good luck with your new interviews section!

Hey! Thank you so much for the article. I am using it in class with my students :)

thank you, it gonna help me for my exam

Just watched your excellent video and your blogpost. Such great ideas and tips. Plus examples of real interviews! Very generous of you and I’m feeling excited about completing my assignment. Thank you very much!

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How to Write a ‘How-To’: A Step-by-Step Guide to Our Contest

We walk you through how to brainstorm a topic, interview an expert and write your own original “How to ….”

By Natalie Proulx and Katherine Schulten

“If you want to know how to do something, don’t just search the internet,” advises Malia Wollan , the longtime writer of Tip , a how-to column that ran weekly in The New York Times Magazine for seven years. “Instead, find a person who already knows how and ask them.”

That’s the challenge we are posing to students in “How to … ,” our new informational writing contest for teenagers : Interview an expert about (almost) any skill and then write an engaging and informative essay explaining it to readers.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to do that, with advice from the how-to expert herself, Ms. Wollan. You’ll start by getting familiar with the Tip format. Then you’ll brainstorm a topic for your own piece, find and interview an expert and, finally, put it all together.

When you’re ready, you can submit your completed how-to essay to our contest , which is accepting submissions through Feb. 14.

A step-by-step guide:

1. read some “tip” articles to understand the form., 2. look more closely at one piece., 3. brainstorm your topic., 4. find an expert., 5. conduct the interview., 6. put it all together..

What does a how-to essay look like? There are, of course, many ways to write one. For instance, you may have consulted wikiHow in the past, whether to learn how to make a realistic New Year’s resolution , fold a fitted sheet , reheat rice or do one of the many, many other things the site can teach you.

But since the inspiration for our contest comes from the Tip column in The Times, spending some time examining how it works is the logical first step in constructing your own.

Start by reading any three Tip articles of your choice.

If you don’t have a Times subscription, this guide can help. If you click on any of the 40-plus Tip topics we link here, you can access them for free, as long as you open them directly from this page. (Note to teachers: If your class does have a Times subscription and you are working from the column itself , be aware that some articles may not be appropriate. Please preview before sharing.)

Here are some options to help you choose:

Maybe you’re interested in learning a physical skill, such as how to build a sand castle , skip a stone , do the splits , tackle someone , spot a shooting star , crack a safe or find a four-leaf clover .

Or maybe you would rather up your emotional intelligence by, say, learning how to laugh at yourself , let your mind wander , recover from being ghosted , build an intentional community , be less fearful of the dark or forgive .

Perhaps you want to know how to do something practical, like break in boots , fix a brake light , mend a pair of jeans , use emojis , put out a grease fire , read faster , survive an avalanche , ask for an extension or find a lost hamster .

Or maybe you’d rather choose something offbeat, like how to start a family band , talk to dogs , communicate through facial expressions , make a love potion , build a fort , enjoy snowflakes , wash your hair in space or race pigeons .

After you’ve read three, answer these questions:

What do you notice about the structure, organization and language of a Tip column?

What predictable elements can readers expect to find in every edition?

If you did the activity above, you might have noticed some of these elements:

Tip articles are short: Each column is about 400 words and around four paragraphs long. Our challenge asks you to write something of about the same length.

The topics are usually ultra-specific: The skills described might be physical ( how to skip a stone ) or emotional ( how to forgive ), serious ( how to suture a wound ) or offbeat ( how to befriend an eagle ), but they are always small enough that they can be fully explained within the limited word count.

Each article features a single expert source: You probably noticed that each column begins and ends with a quote from an expert on the topic and that the same expert gives background and advice throughout the piece. For this contest, we are not requiring you to follow that same format, but we are asking you to find and interview an expert to inform your essay. And if you’d like to follow that format, you may.

The advice is practical, but the pieces are engaging to read. Each includes concrete tips for how to accomplish a task, but it’s never just a boring list of steps. The writer also provides context for the skill so that readers understand how and why they might use it in their own lives. And the quotes Ms. Wollan chooses from her interviews are often colorful or full of voice, as you can see in this piece about how to appreciate spiders .

They are written to the reader: The writer addresses the reader as “you,” and often uses the imperative to craft sentences that tell the reader what (or what not) to do.

Now let’s break it down even further. Choose one Tip article to read — either one you already read in Step 1 or a new one — and then respond to the following questions:

Whom does the writer quote in the piece? Why do you think the author chose this person? What makes him or her an expert in this skill? Do you think this person was a good source of information?

Look closely at when the author chooses to quote the expert and when she paraphrases the information that person gave. What is the difference? Why do you think she chose to quote the lines she did? Give some examples from the piece to explain your reasoning.

You may have been taught in school to cite your sources by using footnotes or by putting them in parentheses after you’ve referenced the information. That’s not how journalists do it, yet they still make their sources clear. Where do you see this in the piece you read? What punctuation or wording does the author use to tell us where certain facts and details come from?

Now let’s look at how the author balances explaining how to acquire a skill and showing why it’s needed: Underline or highlight in one color the lines in the piece that tell readers how to accomplish the task, and use another color to highlight lines that give context. What do you notice about the difference in language? What do you notice about the way these pieces of information are woven together throughout?

After reading this, do you feel confident that you could accomplish the task on your own? What tips, if any, did the expert share that surprised you?

When, where and for what purpose might you use this skill in your own life? What lines help readers see how this skill might be relevant to their lives?

What else do you admire about this piece, whether it’s the topic covered, the way it’s written or anything else?

Now that you better understand how to write a how-to, it’s your turn to write one!

First, of course, you must find a topic. For a Times Insider article about how the Tip column is made , Ms. Wollan and her editor, Dean Robinson, describe how they found their ideas:

She often gets suggestions. Many people ask her to write about navigating interpersonal relationships; Ms. Wollan acquiesced in the case of a highly-requested Tip on how to break up with a therapist. She thinks people come to her because “that stuff is hard to navigate and it’s also hard to Google.” Some of the more recognizable scenarios featured in Tip columns come from Ms. Wollan’s own life. She credits being a mother as the inspiration for columns on delivering babies , singing lullabies and apologizing to children . Mr. Robinson occasionally comes across ideas in his life, too. He suggested a piece on how to find a hamster in your house, he said, “because we’ve lost some hamsters.”

Brainstorm as many possible topics as you can for your how-to piece. Here are some ways to start:

Respond to our related Student Opinion forum . We pose 10 questions designed to help you brainstorm about what you’d like to learn to do, and what you already do well. We hope you’ll not only provide your own answers, but also scroll through the answers of others.

Ask for suggestions. What skills have your friends, family and neighbors always wanted to learn? What do they already consider themselves experts on? Keep a running list.

Get inspiration from the Tip column . As you scroll through the column, which headlines stand out to you? Could you take on a similar topic in a different way? Do any of them inspire other ideas for you?

Work with your class to compile as long a list as you can. After you’ve tried the three ideas above, come to class with your list, then share. Your ideas might spark those of others — and when it’s time to find experts, your classmates may have contacts they can share.

Once you’ve come up with as many ideas as you can, choose one for your piece and refine it until it is the right size for a 400-word piece.

These questions can help:

Which of the topics that you listed gets you most excited? Why?

For which do you think you could realistically find an expert to interview? (More on that in the next step.)

Which are already specific enough that you could thoroughly explain them in 400 words or fewer?

Which are big, but could be broken down? For instance, if you chose “learn to cook,” make a list of specific skills within that larger goal. Maybe you’d like to learn how to chop an onion, bake chocolate chip cookies, or build a healthy meal from the noodles in a ramen packet.

Which topics do you think might be most interesting to a general audience? Which feel especially unique, helpful or unexpected?

Maybe you chose your topic because you know someone who is already an expert at that task or skill. But even if you have, read through this step, because it might help you find someone even more suitable or interesting.

Here is how Ms. Wollan says she found experts for her column:

Ms. Wollan finds interview subjects by “just poking around” online and on the phone. Sometimes she has to talk to a few people before reaching the source she will feature in the column. She interviews most of her subjects by phone for about 45 minutes, sometimes longer. “I love talking to people who just maybe don’t care so much about being an expert,” Ms. Wollan said. Some of her favorite interviews have been with children and people in their 80s, who are often “looser and more generous with their advice.”

Who could be an expert on your topic? At minimum, it should be someone who is knowledgeable enough about your subject that your readers will trust his or her advice.

Some choices might be easy. For example, for her column on how to choose a karaoke song , Ms. Wollan interviewed a world karaoke champion; for her piece on how to recommend a book , she interviewed a librarian; and for her article on how to suture a wound , she interviewed a doctor.

Other choices, however, may be less obvious. For a column on how to breathe , Ms. Wollan interviewed a clarinet player; for one on how to slice a pie , she interviewed a restaurant owner; and for one on how to say goodbye , she interviewed a child-care worker who had bid farewell to many children during her career.

Brainstorm as many potential experts for your piece as you can and then choose one as the subject of your piece.

Your expert doesn’t have to be a world champion or the national head of an organization to have expertise. This person can be anyone with specialized knowledge of a field or topic. For example, if you were writing a piece on how to start bird-watching, you could interview someone who works at a local park or zoo, someone from a birding group in your town or a bird-watcher you know personally, such as a neighbor or teacher.

Like Ms. Wollan, you might start by “poking around online” for potential subjects. And you may have to talk to a few people before you decide on the person you want to feature in your piece.

If you are doing this assignment with classmates, now might be a good time to pool resources. Share your topics, and find out who might know someone with expertise in those areas. Remember that you are not allowed to interview your relatives — but you can suggest your woodworker grandma or your skateboarder cousin to someone who is writing about those topics.

When you reach out to people, keep in mind this advice from Corey Kilgannon, a New York Times reporter who has interviewed people for profiles and who was a guest on a Learning Network webinar about profile writing :

Tell the person what your goal is and where you’re coming from — that you’re writing a profile for a school assignment or a contest or a newspaper or whatever. Be straight with the person you’re interviewing. Some people might be a little nervous or shy about how this is going to turn out, or how they’re going to look. So tell them what it’s for, how long it’s going to be, that there will be photos, or whatever you can.

Once you’ve found the expert for your piece, it’s time to conduct your interview.

In “ The Art of Learning to Do Things ,” Ms. Wollan offers excellent advice that everyone participating in our challenge should take to heart:

If you want to know how to do something, don’t just search the internet. Instead, find a person who already knows how and ask them. At first, they’ll give you a hurried, broad-strokes kind of answer, assuming that you’re uninterested in all the procedural details. But of course that’s precisely what you’re after! Ask for a slowed-down, step-by-step guide through the minutiae of the thing. For seven years, I did exactly that — I called a stranger and asked that person to describe how to do a specific task or skill.

That might sound like a straightforward task, but you should come up with some questions — on your own or with your class — before you talk to your expert.

These might include questions like:

If you were to explain how to do this skill or task to someone who had never done it before, what advice would you give?

What are some common errors that those first learning this skill or trying this task often make? How can they be avoided?

What is your background in this skill? How did you get started with it? How did you learn how to do it?

When or why might a person have to use this skill? What are the benefits of knowing it?

You might also return to some of the Tip articles you read at the beginning of this lesson. Read them closely and see if you can guess what questions the writer may have asked to get the specific quotes and information the expert shared in the piece. Which of these questions might be helpful for your own interview?

Remember that interviewing is an art — and Times journalists can offer you advice.

In addition to asking good questions, it’s also your job as a journalist to make the interviewee feel comfortable, to listen carefully, to ask follow-up questions and to clarify that you have accurate information.

We have written our own extensive how-to on interviewing, filled with tips from Times journalists. Steps 3, 4 and 5 in this lesson will be especially helpful. Created for a contest we ran in 2022, the guide can walk you through preparing and practicing for an interview; keeping the conversation going while conducting it; and shaping the material into a useful piece when you’re done.

Finally, it’s time to write your piece. If you are submitting to our how-to writing contest, keep in mind that your essay must be 400 words or fewer.

Remember, too, that we are inviting you to take inspiration from the Tip column, but that you don’t have to copy its form and structure exactly — unless you’d like to. Most important, though, is to find a way to write what you want in a way that sounds and feels like you.

That said, there are a few key elements that are important to include, which can be found in our contest rubric . Below, we share some examples from the Tip column to illustrate these elements.

Introduce your expert source.

The person you interviewed will be the main source of information for your piece. Ask yourself: How will my readers know this person is an expert in the skill or task? What information should I include about this person to make my readers feel that they can trust the person’s knowledge and advice?

Here is how Ms. Wollan introduces her expert in “ How to Skip a Stone ”:

“Throw at a 20-degree angle,” says Lydéric Bocquet, a physics professor at École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Later, she further explains Mr. Bocquet’s expertise:

Bocquet’s quest to understand how this happens — how a solid object can skim along water without immediately sinking — began more than a decade ago, while he was skipping stones on the Tarn River in southern France with his young son. “He turns to me,” Bocquet says, “and asks, ‘Why does the stone bounce on the water?’” To answer that question satisfactorily, Bocquet and his colleagues built a mechanical stone skipper and analyzed the angle of each toss using high-speed video. They also created a set of mathematical equations to predict the number of skips.

How do you know Bocquet is an expert in skipping stones? Do you, as the reader, trust him as an expert on this topic? Why or why not?

Explain how to do the task or skill.

The heart of your piece is, of course, your explanation. You might start by making a list of steps that your expert source shared and then paring it down to the most essential information.

Ask yourself:

What instructions are crucial to the reader’s understanding of how to accomplish this skill or task?

What did the expert share that I found surprising or may not have thought of?

What details can I leave out, either because they are not very interesting or because they are less important?

What sequence for the steps make the most sense for my readers?

Consider the first paragraph from “ How to Build a Sand Castle ”:

“Use your architect mind,” says Sudarsan Pattnaik, an award-winning sand sculptor from Puri, a seaside city in India. If you’re building from memory, first envision your castle. For Pattnaik, who is 42, that means well-known Hindu or Muslim sites. “I have made so many Taj Mahals,” he says. Build with fine-grained sand already wetted by an outgoing tide. “Dry sand is too, too difficult,” Pattnaik says. Bring tools: hand shovels, buckets with the bottoms cut off and squirt bottles. Tamp wet sand into your bucket molds, setting one layer and then the next, like bricks. Sculpt architectural details from the top of the mound down. Bring reference photographs if you’re aiming for realism.

See if you can identify all the steps to making a sand castle that the writer shares in this paragraph. What do you notice about the order? What, if anything, do you think the writer might have left out, and why do you think she made that choice? What tips did you find most surprising? What do these lines add to the piece?

Notice also the grammatical structure Ms. Wollan uses: “Build with fine-grained sand”; “bring tools”; “tamp wet sand into your bucket molds”; and so on. This is called the imperative mood and is often used when telling others how to do something.

Include at least one quote.

If you are submitting to our contest, you need to include a minimum of one direct quote from the expert. Ask yourself: What quotes from my interview are so interesting, important, surprising, informative or colorful that I need to find a way to fit them in?

Look at “ How to Do the Splits ,” in which Ms. Wollan interviewed Kendrick Young, a professional sumo wrestler:

Start by stretching every day after you get out of the shower (heat increases muscle and ligament flexibility). Wear comfortable, stretchy attire. “Definitely don’t try to do this in jeans,” Young says. Sit with your legs spread as wide as you can. Once you can do that without hunching, begin to lean toward the ground, exhaling as you go. “You don’t want to be bending over a big pocket of air in your lungs,” Young says. It might help to have someone push down on your midback (historically, sumo wrestlers often stood on one another’s backs to force the body to the floor).

Why do you think the writer chose to include these two specific quotes in the piece, while paraphrasing (or writing in her own words) the rest of what Young said? What additional context did the writer provide to help us understand the purpose and relevance of these quotations?

Provide a purpose for reading.

Remember that a how-to essay is not just a list of steps; your readers should also understand how this topic might be relevant to their lives. Ask yourself: Why should a reader care about this skill or task? Where, when or for what reasons might someone want or need to do it?

Consider the last paragraph in “ How to Start a Family Band ”:

To be in a family band, you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time together, actively working on cohesion. Music can act as a kind of binding agent. When they’re not in quarantine, the Haim sisters see, or at least talk to, each other every day. “Instead of camping as kids, or going hiking, it was like, ‘OK, we’re going to practice a few songs,’” Danielle says. “It was definitely my parents’ ploy to spend more time with us.”

What reason does the writer provide for why a reader might want to try this activity? What additional background does she share from the expert, Danielle Haim, to help explain why a family — even one that might not be musical — may want to start a band together?

Submit your final piece.

Once you’ve written and edited your essay, give it a title (“How to…”) and submit it to our contest by Feb. 14. We can’t wait to learn the skills you’ll teach us!

Natalie Proulx joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2017 after working as an English language arts teacher and curriculum writer. More about Natalie Proulx

Katherine Schulten has been a Learning Network editor since 2006. Before that, she spent 19 years in New York City public schools as an English teacher, school-newspaper adviser and literacy coach. More about Katherine Schulten

Quietrebel Writer

How to Write an Interview Article

• August 4, 2022

If you have been asked to conduct an interview, you may be wondering how to write an interview article. This article will address questions about choosing a debatable topic, using the Question and Answer format, and taking notes during the interview. It will also address how to make a strong introduction. In this article, I will discuss the most important aspects of an interview article. I hope you will find this information useful. Once you have completed this guide, you can begin writing your article!

Question-and-answer format

There are several steps to follow when writing a question-and-answer interview. First, it is crucial to establish a hook. The hook can be anything that captures readers’ attention, from a revealing detail to a quote. Then, tie everything together with a well-crafted conclusion paragraph. This article is a great way to gain a deeper understanding of a topic, while also gaining valuable insight into the mind of the interviewee.

To write a great question, you need to know the context in which the interview took place. For example, if the participant was a student at a small on-campus organization, referring to it by name will help you avoid any problems related to anonymity. However, if the organization was a large multinational corporation, you can use a pseudonym. In general, however, it is best to keep the questions focused on the main topic.

Choosing a debatable topic

There are several advantages to choosing a debatable topic when writing an illuminating interview article. You can use secondary sources to complement and counterpoint the interviewee’s views and arguments. In addition, secondary sources allow you to support your claims about the larger historical context. If you’re unsure of which type of source to use, consider using a combination of both. Below are some tips for choosing a debatable topic when writing an interview article

The most important factor in choosing a debatable topic when writing an essay is to ensure that the audience will be interested. In other words, the topic should be debatable in nature. For example, if you’re writing about a debate, you’ll want to use arguments and statistics to back up your claim. Furthermore, debates can help you improve your public speaking skills. For example, learning how to properly structure and present an argument can help you in college applications or job presentations.

Taking notes during an interview

Taking notes during an interview is an effective way to capture the most important information during the interview. Make sure to note the interviewer’s name, email address, and phone number. These will help you contact them later and reinforce important points. Besides, taking notes will also let you go back over the interview questions and reiterate key points. Read on for some tips and tricks for taking notes during an interview. We hope these tips will help you get the job of your dreams!

One of the best ways to take notes during an interview is by using a word processing application. This application provides a large surface to write notes. Notes created in this way will remain in chronological order. In addition, investigators can number the subsequent pages to ensure the order of their notes. This way, the interviewer will not be confused by a fumbled document at the end of the interview. Taking notes during an interview is one of the most effective ways to land the job.

Creating a strong introduction

Creating a strong introduction for an interview piece is essential to the success of the interview itself. The first sentence should introduce the subject and reflect upon the interview article as a whole. In addition to introducing the subject, it should frame the interviewee in some way, either by asking a question that is pertinent to the article’s theme or by providing relevant information that reinforces the subject’s answers.

Developing a strong conclusion

When writing an interview article, you will want to start with a compelling introduction. Ask yourself: why would I read this article? You might be surprised by the answer. If you don’t know, a good first question to ask yourself is, “Why don’t you adopt a shelter dog?”

Next, you should incorporate the information from the interview into your writing. There are many ways to incorporate interview data into your writing, depending on your specific intent. Try paraphrasing or summarizing to highlight the main information. Quotes can also be an effective way to convey the most important points. After all, people like to read articles that are free of errors. However, when writing a personal interview article, you should make sure that your conclusion is persuasive.

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How to Interview Someone for an Article

Last Updated: March 11, 2024

This article was reviewed by Gerald Posner . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. This article has been viewed 46,559 times.

The best interviews are conversational, yet still have structure. This article will walk you through some important things to cover during your interview, as well as provide guidance on how to craft an effective interview question. Read on for more!

Do your homework.

• If the person is a known author or speaker, take the time to read or listen to their work, or at least get familiar with their most recent or most important work.
• If the person is an official or leader, familiarize yourself with that person's organization. Look around the website.
• If the interview will cover recent events, review whatever is known publicly about those events.

Contact the interviewee.

• Tell them what your article will be about, and why you would like to interview them.
• Politely ask if you can interview them.
• Schedule a time to meet in a quiet location, or schedule a time to interview the person by phone.
• Be respectful of the person's time and schedule.

Write down a list of questions beforehand.

Bring a recording device to the interview.

Be courteous and hospitable.

• Arrive on time or a little early.
• Set up anything you need set up in advance. Sound check your recording device.
• Thank the person for agreeing to meet.
• If you are meeting in person, show the interviewee in, offer a seat, and offer water, coffee or tea.
• State any time limits out loud, right at the beginning of the visit. "Let's get started, so we can finish by 2pm and make sure you don't miss your next appointment."
• Ask the interviewee's permission to record their remarks.

Have a natural conversation.

Begin with introductions.

Go into deeper discussion.

Treat it like a conversation.

Steer the interview where it needs to go.

Don't ask too many questions.

Don't be nervous.

Thank them when it's over.

End the interview when it seems appropriate.

Confirm and write down the subject's full name.

Offer a preview.

What Are The Dos And Don’ts Of a Journalistic Interview?

Expert Q&A

• Write a list of questions beforehand so you have a good idea of what you need to ask during the interview (when you might be a bit nervous). Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• Don't just read your questions to the interviewee. Refer to it only as needed to stimulate responses. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

• Keep things light and respectful. You'll gather much more information if your subject is relaxed and engaged in friendly conversation. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0

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Using an interview in a research paper

Consultant contributor: Viviane Ugalde

Using an interview can be an effective primary source for some papers and research projects. Finding an expert in the field or some other person who has knowledge of your topic can allow for you to gather unique information not available elsewhere.

There are four steps to using an interview as a source for your research.

• Know where and how to start.
• Know how to write a good question.
• Know how to conduct an interview.
• Know how to incorporate the interview into your document or project.

Step one: Where to start

First, you should determine your goals and ask yourself these questions:

• Who are the local experts on topic?
• How can I contact these people?
• Does anyone know them to help me setup the interviews?
• Are their phone numbers in the phone book or can I find them on the Internet?

Once you answer these questions and pick your interviewee, get their basic information such as their name, title, and other general details. If you reach out and your interview does not participate, don’t be discouraged. Keep looking for other interview contacts.

Step two: How to write a good question

When you have confirmed an interview, it is not time to come up with questions.

• Learning as much as you can about the person before the interview can help you create questions specific to your interview subject.
• Doing research about your interviewee’s past experience in your topic, or any texts that they have written would be great background research.

When you start to think of questions, write down more questions than you think you’ll need, and prioritize them as you go. Any good questions will answer the 5W and H questions. Asking Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How questions that you need answered for your paper, will help you form a question to ask your interviewee.

When writing a good question, try thinking of something that will help your argument.

• Is your interviewee an advocate for you position?
• Are they in any programs that are related to your research?
• How much experience do they have?

From broad questions like these, you can begin to narrow down to more specific and open-ended questions.

Step three: The interview

If at all possible, arrange to conduct the interview at the subject’s workplace. It will make them more comfortable, and you can write about their surroundings.

• Begin the interview with some small talk in order to give both of you the chance to get comfortable with one another
• Develop rapport that will make the interview easier for both of you.
• Ask open-ended questions
• Keep the conversation moving
• Stay on topic
• The more silence in the room, the more honest the answer.
• If an interesting subject comes up that is related to your research, ask a follow-up or an additional question about it.
• Ask if you can stay in contact with your interview subject in case there are any additional questions you have.

Step four: Incorporating the interview

When picking the material out of your interview, remember that people rarely speak perfectly. There will be many slang words and pauses that you can take out, as long as it does not change the meaning of the material you are using.

As you introduce your interview in the paper, start with a transition such as “according to” or other attributions. You should also be specific to the type of interview you are working with. This way, you will build a stronger ethos in your paper .

The body of your essay should clearly set up the quote or paraphrase you use from the interview responses,. Be careful not to stick a quote from the interview into the body of your essay because it sounds good. When deciding what to quote in your paper, think about what dialogue from the interview would add the most color to your interview. Quotes that illustrate what your interviewer sounded like, or what their personality is are always the best quotes to choose from.

Once you have done that, proofread your essay. Make sure the quotes you used don’t make up the majority of your paper. The interview quotes are supposed to support your argument; you are not supposed to support the interview.

For example, let’s say that you are arguing that free education is better than not. For your argument, you interview a local politician who is on your side of the argument. Rather than using a large quote that explains the stance of both sides, and why the politician chose this side, your quote is there to support the information you’ve already given. Whatever the politician says should prove what you argue, and not give new information.

Step five: Examples of citing your interviews 

Smith, Jane. Personal interview. 19 May 2018.

(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2018).

Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2018).

Reference list

Daly, C. & Leighton W. (2017). Interviewing a Source: Tips. Journalists Resource.

Driscoll, D. (2018 ). Interviewing. Purdue University

Hayden, K. (2012). How to Conduct an Interview to Write a Paper . Bright Hub Education, Bright Hub Inc.

Hose, C. (2017). How to Incorporate Interviews into Essays. Leaf Group Education.

Magnesi, J. (2017). How to Interview Someone for an Article or Research Paper. Career Trend, Leaf group Media.

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A handheld Xbox? Microsoft’s gaming chief can’t stop thinking about it

A handheld Xbox could be hardware, an app, or both

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Share All sharing options for: A handheld Xbox? Microsoft’s gaming chief can’t stop thinking about it

Phil Spencer has tried all of the new PC gaming handhelds: the Asus ROG Ally , the Lenovo Legion Go , and the Steam Deck . He’s impressed. But he can’t shake one question. How would he make them more Xbox?

“I want my Lenovo Legion Go to feel like an Xbox,” Spencer told Polygon in an interview during the annual Game Developers Conference. “I brought [the Legion Go] with me to GDC. I’m on the airplane and I have this list of everything that makes it not feel like an Xbox. Forget about the brand. More like: Are all of my games there? Do all my games show up with the save [files] that I want? I’ll tell you one [game] that doesn’t right now — it’s driving me crazy — is Fallout 76 . It doesn’t have cross-save.

“I want to be able to boot into the Xbox app in a full screen, but in a compact mode. And all of my social [experience] is there. Like I want it to feel like the dash of my Xbox when I turn on the television. [Except I want it] on those devices.”

According to Spencer, the Xbox hardware team, led by Roanne Sones, is considering “different hardware form factors and things that [they] could go do” as it plans the future of Xbox hardware. “What should we build that will find new players?” Spencer said. “That will allow people to play at times when they couldn’t go play [in the past]?”

In our expansive interview, Spencer described two approaches to making Xbox available on handhelds: the hardware versus the software approach. As he said, he has strong feelings about what a handheld Xbox device should feel like. But he also recognizes — having learned from the console business — that players may choose brands other than Xbox. For those players, Spencer wants to improve the Xbox handheld gaming software experience, too — particularly for people who have devices running Windows, like the Legion Go and the Ally.

“I like the fact that Valve, Lenovo, and Asus went out and innovated in a new form factor. And I will say that when I’m playing on those devices, it almost feels more like a console than a PC — nine times out of 10. The things that usually frustrate me are more Windows-based than device-based. Which is an area I feel some ownership of. Like, I want to be able to log in with a controller. I’ve got my list of things we should go do.”

Spencer has spent his tenure at Microsoft pushing Xbox to be both a console experience and a software experience that follows players wherever they enjoy games. That philosophy expands with his views on handheld gaming.

“From a game creator standpoint,” Spencer said, “I can then go build a single version of my game that spans more hardware and reaches more customers. And I would say for players, it reduces the friction. Like, if I want to go play my console games on the go with a handheld, I don’t want to only be able to buy one brand of handheld. Right? […] I want everything that we’re doing in the hardware space to be great. But if somebody chooses to go play today [somewhere else], I don’t want them to feel like a lesser Xbox [player].”

Over the past seven years, we’ve seen the Xbox development team get creative with its software, moving games to new platforms, building up the Game Pass subscription service, and making games playable on smartphones through streaming. As we wrapped our conversation, Spencer wouldn’t outright announce an official Xbox handheld, but he did say he sees a similar level of creativity coming to hardware that Xbox has brought to software.

“I think it’s important,” said Spencer. “You and I, we’ve been around for a couple of days. Look at the real inflection points in our industry, like look at the Wii. It was hardware innovation that was linked with great software innovation.”

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Top Democrats won't join calls for Justice Sotomayor to retire, but they still fear a Ruth Bader Ginsburg repeat

WASHINGTON — Democratic senators are not joining calls on the left for liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire . But for the first time, they’re publicly expressing an unease that history could repeat itself after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s refusal to step down in 2014 ended in the Supreme Court lurching sharply to the right.

Ginsburg, then 81 and a cancer survivor, could have retired and been replaced by a Democratic appointee when President Barack Obama was in office and his party controlled 55 Senate seats. She rejected the calls — and died in September 2020, allowing then-President Donald Trump to replace her.

It was a history-making moment: Ginsburg’s successor, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, gave rise to a 6-3 conservative majority . Barrett went on to cast a deciding vote to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling less than two years later.

With that humbling history in mind, some liberal commentators say Sotomayor — who is 69, a lifelong diabetic and the oldest member of the court’s liberal wing — should retire while Joe Biden is president and Democrats control the Senate, echoing similar calls directed at Ginsburg a decade ago that went unheeded.

Democratic senators who serve on the Judiciary Committee remain haunted by the Ginsburg precedent. None are publicly calling on Sotomayor to step down, but they say they hope it doesn’t happen again and create a 7-2 conservative majority.

“I’m very respectful of Justice Sotomayor. I have great admiration for her. But I think she really has to weigh the competing factors,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “We should learn a lesson. And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be. The old saying — graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.”

Blumenthal emphasized that Sotomayor is “a highly accomplished and, obviously, fully functioning justice right now.” He added that “justices have to make their personal decisions about their health, and their level of energy, but also to keep in mind the larger national and public interest in making sure that the court looks and thinks like America.”

Senator: Ginsburg 'might have rethought' it

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, the No. 2 Democrat on the committee, said he hasn’t given much thought to Sotomayor’s future and is “not joining any calls” for her to leave the court.

But he warned that if the six-member Republican majority were to grow, it would further empower the court's “extremist wing.” Occasionally, he said, a couple of conservative justices “hold themselves back” and contain the scope of the court’s rulings.

“Run it to 7-2 and you go from a captured court to a full MAGA court,” Whitehouse said in an interview. “Certainly I think if Justice Ginsburg had it to do over again, she might have rethought her confidence in her own health.”

But Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, said she’s “not going to be talking about anybody choosing to retire” when asked about Sotomayor.

Others are less shy about pointedly calling on Sotomayor to vacate her seat. There has been a flurry of op-eds on the issue and some law professors and legal advocacy groups have similarly weighed in.

“This isn’t personal. This isn’t about one individual justice," said Molly Coleman, executive director of the progressive People’s Parity Project. "It’s nothing to do with what an incredible legal talent Justice Sotomayor is. It’s about what’s in the best interests of the country moving forward.”

Asked about the liberals calling on Sotomayor to retire, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said: “President Biden believes that decisions to retire from the Supreme Court should be made by the justices themselves and no one else.”

To some liberals, the reluctance of elected officials to call on Sotomayor to step aside is confounding.

“All the people in the liberal legal community are putting hurting Sonia’s feelings ahead of the prospect of a 7-2 court. Insane,” said one Democrat who has worked on judicial nominations and is prohibited from speaking publicly about the justices. “So they don’t say anything about her retiring when they all think she should.”

Sotomayor hasn't signaled any plans to go

The calls involving Sotomayor come at a perilous moment for Democrats, as polls show Biden is far from certain to beat Trump in their rematch. The party currently controls 51 Senate seats, but faces a daunting challenge to keep the majority, defending three seats in the red states of West Virginia, Montana and Ohio and five more in purple states in November's elections. Even if Biden wins re-election, losing the Senate would give Republicans an effective veto over liberal nominees.

There are obvious differences between the Ginsburg and Sotomayor situations. In 2014, Ginsburg was 12 years older than Sotomayor is now. Ginsburg, in 2014, had served on the court for 21 years. Sotomayor will reach her 15-year milestone in August.

There are no signs that Sotomayor has any plans to step down. She remains an active questioner during Supreme Court arguments. Some commentators, however, seized on recent remarks made during an appearance in California , when she said she was “tired” and working harder than ever.

“And to be almost 70 years old, this wasn’t what I expected,” she said, according to Bloomberg Law.

Her health has also been subject to scrutiny, mostly because of her diabetes.  

Sotomayor, via a court spokeswoman, did not respond to a request for comment.

Even some of those who urged Ginsburg to step down a decade ago are holding fire on Sotomayor, including Erwin Chemerinsky, an influential liberal law professor who is the dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law.

In 2014, Chemerinsky wrote a much-discussed article saying that Ginsburg’s refusal to step down “could end up hurting her legal legacy on the court.”

Now, citing Sotomayor’s age, Chemerinsky sees no such urgency.

“I think that is a significant difference and do not see a basis for calling for Justice Sotomayor to retire at this time,” he said in an email.

While the long-term impact could be huge, Sotomayor's choice is not as immediately pivotal. Even if she leaves this year and is replaced by a Democratic nominee, it would merely shore up a liberal minority that lacks the votes to move the court to the left without the buy-in of at least two conservative colleagues.

'Life is pretty good for a retired justice'

Melissa Murray, a professor at New York University School of Law and a former Sotomayor law clerk, said the justice remains “very robust” and has given no indications of retiring.

“She’s never said anything to me. She’s never said anything publicly,” she added.

That is in stark contrast to Ginsburg, who in 2014 responded to the resignation calls with defiance.

“So tell me who the president could have nominated this spring that you would rather see on the court than me?” she told Reuters .

Blumenthal said that justices shouldn’t fear retirement.

“Life is pretty good for a retired justice,” he said. “They continue to sit on cases, they get paid on par with what they’ve received before. She’s a highly respected intellect and figure with a great record of accomplishments. So she would have a lot of opportunities for continued public service.”

On the other side of the aisle, 90-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he wouldn’t call on a justice to retire. He will be 95 when his current Senate term ends.

“Everybody’s got to make that personal decision,” Grassley said. “And I wouldn’t comment on it for somebody else, because that’s their decision. Just like it’s my decision to run for re-election.”

Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Lawrence Hurley covers the Supreme Court for NBC News.

What in Netflix's Prince Andrew interview drama 'Scoop' is fact and what's fiction

• Netflix's new movie "Scoop" tells the story of how the BBC got an interview with Prince Andrew in 2019.
• The interview was meant to stop speculation about Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein, but it backfired.
• Here's how the Netflix's portrayal compares to accounts from those who were in the interview room.

Netflix's "Scoop" is a dramatic retelling of Prince Andrew's infamous BBC interview where he defended his friendship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The new movie, which stars Gillian Anderson , Rufus Sewell, and Billie Piper, is based on the final chapters of "Scoops," the memoir of Sam McAlister, a former producer of the BBC's flagship current affairs show, "Newsnight."

The story follows McAlister as she pursues an interview with Prince Andrew about the prince's relationship with Epstein, who died by suicide in a jail cell a month after being charged with sex trafficking dozens of minors.

The controversy surrounding the prince and Epstein escalated in August 2019 after an unsealed document from a defamation lawsuit involving Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell , claimed that Prince Andrew had sex with one of the Epstein's alleged victims on three occasions. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the alleged victim who filed the lawsuit, claimed Maxwell and Epstein sex-trafficked her and forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew.

Prince Andrew denied the claims in a statement released by Buckingham Palace in August 2019, but the scandal did not go away. In November 2019, the prince agreed to appear on "Newsnight," but the interview only sparked fresh criticism. Prince Andrew later resigned from his duties as a royal and was stripped of his titles.

Although there are some fictional moments in the film, "Scoop" is fairly faithful to McAlister's account in her book. That's likely because she was an executive producer for the movie.

Here is what "Scoop" gets right and wrong about the controversial interview.

Princess Beatrice really took part in a meeting with the BBC 'Newsnight' team.

In "Scoop," before Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) agrees to the interview, he asks for a face-to-face meeting with the BBC. Sam McAlister (Billie Piper), who books "Newsnight" guests, brings along producer Stewart Maclean (Richard Goulding) and anchor Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) to persuade the prince.

But when they get there, they are surprised that Prince Andrew has brought his 17-year-old daughter, Princess Beatrice (Charity Wakefield), to the meeting.

According to McAlister's book, this actually happened. She wrote that it occurred during her third two-hour-long negotiation meeting with Prince Andrew's staff on November 11, 2019.

"To be frank, the only thing worse than speaking to prospective interviewee about allegations of sexual impropriety, paedophilia and sex with a seventeen-year-old girl is having to do so in front of his daughter," McAlister wrote, saying that the princess' arrival shocked Maclean and Maitlis.

McAlister wrote that she had to change her tactics to sway Princess Beatrice since she was close to her father and her grandmother, the Queen, and could get the interview canceled.

While in the film, Princess Beatrice only interjects in the conversation once, McAlister wrote in her book that the princess interrogated her as much as Prince Andrew.

"Princess Beatrice was polite and engaged, carrying a notebook and a pen, but she was evidently anxious about the meeting, unlike her father," McAlister wrote.

McAlister went on that Prince Andrew told the producers his alibi for March 10, 2001, the date when Guiffre claimed she had sex with him, which he later repeated in the live interview. McAlister also wrote that she mentioned the "Air Miles Andy" and "Randy Andy" nicknames, which refer to his luxury air travel habit and alleged promiscuity, directly to his face.

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"As we talked, I gave it to Prince Andrew very bluntly," McAlister wrote. "'Sir, I have lived in this country for over forty years and, until now, I only knew two things about you. It's that you're known as 'Air Miles Andy' and 'Randy Andy' and I can absolutely tell you that the latter really doesn't help you in your current predicament.'"

McAlister wrote that the prince laughed at this. The next day, the interview was confirmed, and the team had two days to plan.

Donal McCabe, the communications secretary for the late Queen did not record the Andrew interview in 'Scoops.'

True to life, the "Newsnight" interview takes place in Buckingham Palace in "Scoop." However, in the film, a man walks in just before the interview starts, places a phone on a table, and records the entire thing.

McAlister tells Maclean (Goulding) that the man is Donal McCabe, a press officer for Queen Elizabeth II who died in 2022. The unexpected arrival makes the "Newsnight" producers worry the royal family will pull the plug on the interview.

In McAlister's book, McCabe, the Queen's head of communications, appears but doesn't leave any recording device. McAlister wrote that McCabe was introduced to her on the day of the interview but just dropped in for a quick greeting before leaving.

"His moment in the room is fleeting but, retrospectively, significant. It means several things. First, that the Queen likely knew about the interview (there has been a lot of speculation on that point). Of course, I can't know for certain either way, but, if she didn't, it would be strange to have her member of staff there to come and say 'hello,'" McAlister wrote.

McAlister also wrote that she thought it strange that he didn't stay, since he may have picked up on how scandalous the interview would be if he did.

McAlister didn't write anything about Amanda Thirsk, Prince Andrew's former secretary, intervening in the interview.

Although the movie doesn't include the entire "Newsnight" interview, Sewell and Anderson's performance is almost an exact retelling of the real conversation between Maitlis and Prince Andrew. But the movie adds the moment where Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), the prince's private secretary, intervened partway through to get Prince Andrew to emphasize his alibi for where he was on March 10.

McAlister's book does not mention this part, and it may be a fictional element to add drama to the story.

Prince Andrew and his team really did think the interview went well.

In "Scoop," Prince Andrew, Thirsk, and his staff all believe the interview went superbly. It quickly becomes apparent that they are unaware of how bad the interview will look for Prince Andrew.

McAlister wrote that this was the case in real life, and said when she spoke to Thirsk after the interview: "She beamed back at me. 'Wasn't he wonderful!' she said, smiling."

McAlister wrote that Prince Andrew offered a tour of the palace, just like in the movie, but she left because she couldn't face him.

"He actually thought it had gone well. In fact he was in fine spirits," she wrote. " He was in such a good mood that he offered us all a tour of the palace. I couldn't go. I wouldn't be able to speak to him in good faith."

Maitlis (Anderson) goes on the tour and briefly talks to Prince Andrew about the interview.

"You know, I thought that all went very well," Prince Andrew says in the film.

"Like a walk in the park," Maitlis replies, referring to an earlier scene in the movie where Prince Andrew was pictured walking in a park with Epstein before his death.

Mark Harrison, a photographer who participated in the "Newsnight" interview, told The Times of London in April that the real Maitlis said the same thing to Prince Andrew.

"Then, he turns to Maitlis with a smile and says: 'Well, that went well, didn't it?'" Harrison said. "She says icily: "What, sir? Like a walk in the park?" She is referring to the Jeffrey Epstein walk in the park. There is an enormous pause. Suddenly Andrew says: 'Oh, I get it! The park!'"

In 2010, Prince Andrew was photographed in public with Epstein months after he had been released from jail after being convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Prince Andrew said in the 2019 "Newsnight" interview that he visited Epstein at that time to end their friendship but stayed at his house for multiple days.

"Scoop" is available to stream on Netflix.

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

Watch: Watch the highlights from Boris Johnson's resignation speech

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Baltimore bridge collapse: a bridge engineer explains what happened, and what needs to change

Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, Monash University

Disclosure statement

Colin Caprani receives funding from the Department of Transport (Victoria) and the Level Crossing Removal Project. He is also Chair of the Confidential Reporting Scheme for Safer Structures - Australasia, Chair of the Australian Regional Group of the Institution of Structural Engineers, and Australian National Delegate for the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering.

Monash University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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When the container ship MV Dali, 300 metres long and massing around 100,000 tonnes, lost power and slammed into one of the support piers of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the bridge collapsed in moments . Six people are presumed dead, several others injured, and the city and region are expecting a months-long logistical nightmare in the absence of a crucial transport link.

It was a shocking event, not only for the public but for bridge engineers like me. We work very hard to ensure bridges are safe, and overall the probability of being injured or worse in a bridge collapse remains even lower than the chance of being struck by lightning.

However, the images from Baltimore are a reminder that safety can’t be taken for granted. We need to remain vigilant.

So why did this bridge collapse? And, just as importantly, how might we make other bridges more safe against such collapse?

A 20th century bridge meets a 21st century ship

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was built through the mid 1970s and opened in 1977. The main structure over the navigation channel is a “continuous truss bridge” in three sections or spans.

The bridge rests on four supports, two of which sit each side of the navigable waterway. It is these two piers that are critical to protect against ship impacts.

And indeed, there were two layers of protection: a so-called “dolphin” structure made from concrete, and a fender. The dolphins are in the water about 100 metres upstream and downstream of the piers. They are intended to be sacrificed in the event of a wayward ship, absorbing its energy and being deformed in the process but keeping the ship from hitting the bridge itself.

The fender is the last layer of protection. It is a structure made of timber and reinforced concrete placed around the main piers. Again, it is intended to absorb the energy of any impact.

Fenders are not intended to absorb impacts from very large vessels . And so when the MV Dali, weighing more than 100,000 tonnes, made it past the protective dolphins, it was simply far too massive for the fender to withstand.

Read more: I've captained ships into tight ports like Baltimore, and this is how captains like me work with harbor pilots to avoid deadly collisions

Video recordings show a cloud of dust appearing just before the bridge collapsed, which may well have been the fender disintegrating as it was crushed by the ship.

Once the massive ship had made it past both the dolphin and the fender, the pier – one of the bridge’s four main supports – was simply incapable of resisting the impact. Given the size of the vessel and its likely speed of around 8 knots (15 kilometres per hour), the impact force would have been around 20,000 tonnes .

Bridges are getting safer

This was not the first time a ship hit the Francis Scott Bridge. There was another collision in 1980 , damaging a fender badly enough that it had to be replaced.

Around the world, 35 major bridge collapses resulting in fatalities were caused by collisions between 1960 and 2015, according to a 2018 report from the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure. Collisions between ships and bridges in the 1970s and early 1980s led to a significant improvement in the design rules for protecting bridges from impact.

Further impacts in the 1970s and early 1980s instigated significant improvements in the design rules for impact.

The International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering’s Ship Collision with Bridges guide, published in 1993, and the American Association of State Highway and Transporation Officials’ Guide Specification and Commentary for Vessel Collision Design of Highway Bridges (1991) changed how bridges were designed.

In Australia, the Australian Standard for Bridge Design (published in 2017) requires designers to think about the biggest vessel likely to come along in the next 100 years, and what would happen if it were heading for any bridge pier at full speed. Designers need to consider the result of both head-on collisions and side-on, glancing blows. As a result, many newer bridges protect their piers with entire human-made islands.

Of course, these improvements came too late to influence the design of the Francis Scott Key Bridge itself.

Lessons from disaster

So what are the lessons apparent at this early stage?

First, it’s clear the protection measures in place for this bridge were not enough to handle this ship impact. Today’s cargo ships are much bigger than those of the 1970s, and it seems likely the Francis Scott Key Bridge was not designed with a collision like this in mind.

So one lesson is that we need to consider how the vessels near our bridges are changing. This means we cannot just accept the structure as it was built, but ensure the protection measures around our bridges are evolving alongside the ships around them.

Second, and more generally, we must remain vigilant in managing our bridges. I’ve written previously about the current level of safety of Australian bridges, but also about how we can do better.

This tragic event only emphasises the need to spend more on maintaining our ageing infrastructure. This is the only way to ensure it remains safe and functional for the demands we put on it today.

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Origin director Ava DuVernay on grief and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who inspired her latest film

Grief is complicated, says filmmaker Ava DuVernay (Selma; 13th).

"It is its own life journey that most of us will experience, unfortunately, and you know it has sorrowful moments, but there is also beauty in that journey," she says. "It's all intertwined."

DuVernay was grieving when the inimitable Oprah Winfrey handed her a copy of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson's non-fiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents in 2020.

"We were in the midst of a pandemic, I had lost some loved ones and we were dealing, in the United States, with the murder of George Floyd , which was a huge cultural and social event here; a tragedy," DuVernay recalls.

"I didn't feel like reading a 500-page book about some pretty heavy subject matter. I just wasn't in the headspace."

Wilkerson's searing treatise – one of former President Barack Obama's favourite books – posits that the great racial rift in America is as much about brutal caste structures as it is about skin colour. Drawing parallels with India's treatment of the Dalits, or "untouchables", and Nazi persecution of Jewish people, it's a confronting read. After two months, DuVernay picked up and was exhilarated by Wilkerson's theories.

"The idea of caste as being the foundational principle of so many of the -isms that we experience in our lives — whether it's racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism or whatever — the bedrock of all of that is this very fundamental idea that I'm better than you because of this set of random traits and that I will organise society and I will accrue power and status based on that," says DuVernay

"It sparked a fresh way of thinking about old things."

Blurred lines

Channelling her grief through the momentous text, DuVernay decided to turn it into a film. But she approached the material in a fresh way, crafting an intriguing biopic about Wilkerson's fraught experience writing the book.

"I wanted to tell a story about a woman who was a teacher, who is galvanised by this cultural phenomenon and wants to share these ideas with us," DuVernay says.

Three of Wilkerson's family members died while she tackled the thesis.

"This woman was going through great tragedy, the horrors of losing the three closest people to you in your life within a 16-month period. How do you endure?" DuVernay says.

And yet endure Wilkerson does. The remarkable Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor steps into the author's shoes, towering in the central role. She had worked with DuVernay before, starring as Sharonne, the mother of Yusef Salaam, in the director's powerful Netflix miniseries  When They See Us , about five real-life Black and Latino teenagers falsely accused of raping a white woman.

"I really needed someone who was going to be an intellectual partner with me, because the subject matter is pretty dense," DuVernay says.

"And if there's one word that I think of when I consider Aunjanue, it's rigour. She's a very disciplined actor, highly intelligent and she gives us a superb performance."

As we follow Wilkerson's inquisitive journey through America's south and on to Berlin and New Dehli, her interviews with experts give way to dramatic re-creations.

Origin opens with the goosebump-inducing last moments of teenager Trayvon Martin , played by Myles Frost. We meet Nazi Party member August Landmesser (Finn Wittrock), who fell in love with and married a Jewish woman, Irma Eckler (Victoria Pedretti), and is the subject of a famous photo in which he refuses to participate in the "Heil Hitler" salute.

Caste-confounding Dalit professor Suraj Yengde plays himself.

"As a documentarian, I like blurring those edges," DuVernay says of casting Yengde. "I was working in the narrative form, but there are some documentary-esque textures."

Love stories

Both DuVernay and Wilkerson make sense of the world through their work.

"This time that we're in, it feels intense to us. But there's never been a time when there has not been war, tragedy, sorrow and pain happening somewhere, whether we know about it," DuVernay says.

"Some of my colleagues, like [ Dune director] Denis Villeneuve, are futurists. They're thinking about what's ahead and the worlds to come.

"And I want to learn about what we've done and how we can learn from it."

While much of DuVernay's work tackles difficult material, she sees it from another angle.

"When They See Us is about five boys who Donald Trump relegated to being criminals, by taking out a full-page ad to demonise them when they were innocent. He wanted to throw away the key and at one point said that they should be killed," she says.

"But at the end of the four-part series, you see the triumph of overcoming that. That is a joyous journey, for me as a storyteller. It's not a weight. Selma is not a weight. 13th is not a weight.

"It's telling the stories of the triumph of the people who have survived."

To DuVernay, they are love stories.

"Colin in Black & White [about American footballer and activist Colin Kaepernick's high school years] is a love story between him and his parents. When They See Us is a love story about the families that stood by these boys through thick and thin and were ostracised. Selma is about the love of your tribe. Origin is a love story about human connection and addressing grief," she says.

Art connects us all, DuVernay argues: "Whether it's film, literature, music, painting, sculpture or the culinary arts, going home and whoever is there puts love into what they make for you, or what you make for yourself: That's art.

"Art is just the beauty of life, and these are the things that remind us of our humanity."

Origin is in cinemas from April 4.

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World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

Planning research with generative ai.

April 5, 2024 2024-04-05

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AI chatbots (like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot) can support UX researchers of all experience levels in planning their research.

In This Article:

What is a research plan, using ai chatbots to write a research plan.

Good research always starts with a plan.

A research plan is a document that outlines the research objectives and how the research will be executed.

Research plans should include:

• The research goals or questions that the research is hoping to achieve or answer
• The method to be used and a description of how it will be carried out
• The tasks or questions that will be given to study participants
• The profile of the target participants
• The screener questionnaire used to recruit participants

Creating a research plan can be time-consuming. Even with a good template, a researcher must generate research questions, select the appropriate method(s), decide how to run sessions, and often create study collateral (like screeners and tasks) from scratch. The good news is that AI can help with many, if not all, of these tasks!

It can be tempting to just ask an AI tool to give you a research plan for a project. Don’t do that.

❌ Bad Prompt : Generate a research plan for a usability test of a food-delivery app.

This kind of request results in a generic, template-like response, partly because AI lacks the context to propose a complete research plan and partly because of how the model has been trained.

To construct a useful research plan, deconstruct the plan into parts and have the AI chatbot tackle each part individually. You can assemble responses in a final research plan.

Don’t expect the AI to ask you the right questions in order to get a comprehensive outcome. View the AI tool as a UX assistant , not as a UX mentor. You need to feed into the AI all the steps and details you want it to consider.

Follow the steps below for the best results.

Step 1: Provide Context

Imagine asking an experienced colleague for recommendations on what research study to run without giving them any context on what project you’re working on and what you’re trying to achieve. They would probably say, "It depends on what you’re trying to learn.” Conversing with AI presents no exception.

Start your conversation with enough context , especially if the AI tool does not already have this information stored about you or your current project. ( ChatGPT 4 allows users to store context for each new conversation.)

The contextual information you share should include who you work for, the scope of your project, and what you’re looking to achieve. Remember that some AI tools may use your conversations to train their models, so share only information you would be comfortable with being in the open domain.

 Prompt Template: I work for [type or organization] . My company provides [what kind of product, service, or experience] . I need to run a user-research study to learn [something about users or a problem] .

Step 2: Generate Research Questions

After providing the AI tool with context, ask it to suggest specific research questions for the study. Here’s an example from a recent study on research repositories that I conducted for NN/g.

Prompt Example: I will run a research study and report on how UX practitioners across different organizations set up and use research repositories. Please generate 10 research questions that would be suitable for this sort of study.

It’s a good idea to ask generative AI tools for more options or ideas than you think you’ll need, because some will not be a good fit.

Microsoft Copilot responded to the prompt above with the 10 research questions below.

10 Research questions generated by Microsoft Copilot

Who are the primary users of the research repository within different organizations? What motivates users to engage with the research repository? How do different teams (design, product, sales, marketing) access and benefit from the research repository? What challenges do practitioners face when contributing to or retrieving information from the repository? What types of research artifacts (reports, raw data, templates) are most commonly stored in the repository? How do organizations structure their research repositories? What tools and templates are commonly used to facilitate research repository management? How do practitioners ensure the quality and accuracy of information in the repository? What impact does the research repository have on decision-making and project outcomes? What strategies can organizations implement to encourage widespread adoption and active participation in the research repository?

To broaden your pool of research questions, ask for further research questions or provide the same prompt in a new session. Repeat this process as many times as you need to generate a list that feels exhaustive of what you’d like to learn.

Some of the research questions Copilot generated for me were appropriate, and others were not. As a result, I had AI generate more research questions to choose from.

Unfortunately, most AI chatbots don’t offer an easy way to dismiss suggestions or combine specific responses and work from only these (a behavior called apple-picking ).

Pulling in generated research questions into an offline document (like a FigJam or Google Doc) allows you to easily group items, remove duplicates, or reword suggested research questions.

Begin a new chat session with your selected and refined set of research questions, so that the unwanted research questions are removed from the chat history.

Step 3: Request Methods

After sharing the context and your chosen research questions, ask the AI tool to identify suitable research methods.

Example Prompt : What study would you suggest to answer these research questions? Please be specific; cite which research questions would be answered by which research method if you suggest multiple methods.

Generative-AI advice is not always good advice. Often, these tools will suggest various methods and suggest you triangulate data from multiple sources. This approach is not always needed. Also, not all methods will be practical or the best fit for your study. Additionally, AI may suggest interviews and focus groups even for research questions better suited to a behavioral research method .

Ask AI chatbots to tell you which research methods would be suited to which research question and why. We also recommend doing some further reading on your own about any methods that are unfamiliar to you.

In response to the prompt above (and given my chosen research questions), ChatGPT recommended a survey, interviews with select UX practitioners, and case studies. These were all my chosen methods, so AI had done well here!

Step 4: Request Inclusion Criteria

AI can create inclusion criteria — a necessary component of your research plan. Do this step only after generating research questions and methods since these will inform who should participate in the research study.

Inclusion criteria (or recruitment criteria) are specific characteristics of the target population that need to be represented in your sample.

Start with inclusion criteria before asking the AI to help you write a screening questionnaire ; AI can only craft an appropriate screener after it “knows” who you’re looking to recruit.

Example Prompt: So that I recruit the right people for my interviews, help me create some inclusion criteria. What characteristics or behaviors should I recruit for?

Step 5: Request Help with Screeners, Interview Questions, and Tasks

Finally, ask the AI to put together:

• Interview questions or an interview guide (if conducting interviews)
• Tasks for a usability test
• Diary-study prompts (if relevant)
• Recruitment confirmation emails or other communication messages.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad examples of the above on the web. Conversational AI has been trained on all this data. Therefore, don’t be surprised if it produces poor study collateral on its first attempt! This is a major risk area for new researchers.

One way to mitigate this danger is to give the AI tool advice when crafting any of these outputs . Think of AI as a new research assistant who can learn extremely quickly.

Common mistakes that AI tools make include:

• Using words that appear in the interface in task instructions (priming)
• Creating task instructions that ask users to imagine they are someone that they are not
• Not including a goal or a call to action in the task instruction
• Not including distractor options in screening questionnaires
• Using overenthusiastic marketing language in recruitment materials

It’s not surprising that AI makes these mistakes since UX practitioners also make them!

To improve outputs, feed the AI essential tips, such as:

• When crafting tasks: Do not use the name of words or link labels in the task instruction. Find a natural-language equivalent to explain what the participant should do . (You can ask AI to “read” a website or an image.)
• When crafting recruitment materials: Use neutral and concise language in the recruitment email. Avoid using overly enthusiastic marketing language.
• When crafting a screener: Include multiple-choice questions and answer options that might disguise what the study is about and who I am looking to recruit.

Additionally, when possible, feed the AI with good examples of screener questionnaires, tasks, or interview questions, so it can follow their format or style.

Even with this advice, AI can still make mistakes. If you’re doubting its answers, check primary sources or speak with an experienced researcher for old-fashioned human guidance.

If you have ChatGPT’s Plus Plan, you can use our GPT for planning your research.

With the proper context, examples, and advice, AI tools, like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, can craft helpful research questions, tasks, interview questions, and other study collateral far more quickly than you could if you started from scratch.

Research leads and ResearchOps personnel can support junior researchers and PWDRs (People Who Do Research) by providing examples and advice that can be fed to AI agents. Experienced researchers can benefit from using AI to speed up their research-planning process and obtain further inspiration.

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