Interview Notes
Overall, the interviews were decent. Considering that this may have been the first time doing something like this, consider it successful. That being said, some were definitely better than others. The ones that proved to be better were made so by one central point, there was a hint of why their subject was interesting and worthy of an interview. However, even in the best cases this was more of an implicit statement, rather than made explicitly clear in your writing. This includes some of the pieces that included really strong writing technique. Moreover, many of you are really developing some cleverness in your writing that was not immediately present in the first few samples I read.
Rest assured, you will be afforded an opportunity to improve these and your overall grade.
As discussed, there were a handful of challenges that were experienced in the development of these pieces:
- Establishing importance of the subject
- Finding an angle or point on your material
- Preparing quality questions to get good material from your subject
- Adapting your questions during the interview to get stronger material
- Using evidence in the form of quotes or stats to support your angle, point, or claims
The trick with any interview is to clearly establish the subject’s importance within the first ten lines or so of the piece. You can have a great, creative introduction, but if that is not followed by a statement that makes it clear why anyone should care to know anything about your interviewee everything starts to unravel. Moreover, to use a fishing term, you use a flashy lure but you still haven’t “set the hook” to ensure that you will be able to land (caught) your fish, in this case the reader.
The questions issues are particularly unique, mainly because you haven’t been asked to do this kind of thing often. Defining really strong questions that will illicit great responses is a skill that takes time to develop. Everyone gets better at by doing it and, like so many things, there are no shortcuts. Consequently, your preparation may have let you down a little. What’s more you may have felt unable to make adjustments during the interview to really get a lot of material, particularly if you had an interviewee that may not have been terribly colorful. Plus, everyone at some point (whether it is for an interview, research paper, whatever) goes through their notes only to discover, “I don’t have anything really good here!” Usually followed by something on the order of “What am I going to do now?!” You can always ask the person some more questions informally and let them know that you need to add to your interview.
Another factor missing in a lot papers was the use of statistics to help support any claims that the athletes were any good. Although, keep in mind the statistics do not make the case alone, you need to provide context in the form of commentary and analysis. For instance, in the major leagues a pitcher that wins twenty games has become a rarity, making that individual an increasingly more valuable individual. However, in high school a benchmark of similar quality is merely seven, considering how many fewer starts they get and the length of the season. You cannot assume that anyone knows these kinds of details, especially if they do not play the sport at the high school level. Therefore you need to wrap your evidence and support with some explanation to back up your claims. In that way it is similar to writing an essay, but be clear an interview is not an essay.
Please remember, there were a lot of good things happening in your work and this was the first time that many of you had to do something like this. Writing is always a process and requires revision and refinement. Hang on to your work and begin revising it. I will give you the details of how you can improve your grade after the break.