Interviewing A Vampire

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Interviewing A Vampire

• Ateneo de Manila High School
• English Department
• Mr. Galinato

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• Doing ones homework is the necessary first
  step towards an interview.
• One must prepare.

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SUBJECT

• Who is it who can give one the desired
  information, and is accessible and available?
• The answer would depend on the kind of
  information desired.
• Ask yourselves
• What do I really want to know?
• What does the public really want to know?

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SUBJECT

• The particular information desired would then
  focus the interview on the right person.
• The right subject must not only have the
  information, but must be availablealive, with
  memory largely intact, and within the city,
  province, country, or continent in which one
  operates.

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SUBJECT

• He/she must also be accessibleable or likely to
  grant an interview.
• Here in the Philippines, accessible means
  reachable by normal efforts, perhaps through
  mediators (when known to one, or ones parents).

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SUBJECT

• One must also determine if the person one wishes
  to interview has the time and the inclination to
  speak to one.
• The interviewer must ask him/herself Why should
  this person want to speak to me?

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SUBJECT

• When I asked my freshmen college students to
  interview food vendors, one bought a sample of
  each of the vendors products, got a stomach
  acheand a good interview. The rest simply
  offered the vendors their curiosity and interest,
  some conversation, and a good chance to tell
  their stories.

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SUBJECT

• People love to talk, says Eddy Alegre, about
  themselves, about their ideas, about what they
  saw, tasted, experienced, know. They want to
  relate, narrate, explain, or just plain want to
  communicate themselves to other persons. Most
  of us welcome a chance to tell our stories, even
  to strangers, especially if they are friendly and
  interested.

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DO YOUR HOMEWORK

• How dare you come to interview me without even
  knowing what I have written?
• The principal thing that makes a good interview
  is a well-prepared interviewer, says Harrison
  Salisbury a political and historical writerone
  who does his homework who knows enough about
  the background and the personality of this
  individual.

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DO YOUR HOMEWORK

• Find out everything you can about the person who
  has given you an interview appointment
• Everything written, recorded, and documented
• Details of his biography (where he was born and
  grew up, where he went to school, when he started
  his profession, etc.)
• Where he stands on an issue, works made or bills
  proposed/voted for, lifestyle outside of his
  profession, etc.
• The merchandise he sells, his skills, etc.

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DO YOUR HOMEWORK

• How exactly do you do your homework?
• Interact with people
• Read newspapers
• Ask questions
• Etc.
• The information gathered can be put on cards,
  notebooks, computers, or kept in memory as long
  as it is available to the user at the moment of
  interview.

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PREPARING THE QUESTIONS

• Should one go to the interview with a list of
  questions, written down in the order of asking?
• One must certainly travel equipped with
  questions, but the manner of preparing , listing,
  and asking them depends on the style of the
  interview or the interviewer.

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PREPARING THE QUESTIONS

• The important thing is to have a focus of
  questioningthat something I and my audience
  really want to knowand allow it to determine
  the questions and their progress, always allowing
  for unexpected but necessary shifts in order and
  even direction.

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PREPARING THE QUESTIONS

• Try to keep in mind the rhythm and shape of the
  interview, knowing by feel which questions must
  precede what.
• Final advice Do have questions, but be prepared
  to have them derailed, or superceded. Be
  prepared to junk or postpone them when the
  opportunity for a better question comes up.

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PREPARING THE QUESTIONS

• Be prepared as well not to ask most of them.
• The kind of questions one must ask depends on the
  interview and subject. Generally, the questions
  should not be answerable by Yes or No,
  because a mono-syllabic answer could bring the
  conversation to a dead stop.

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PREPARING THE QUESTIONS

• Devise questions that will carry the conversation
  forward.
• They should be questions loaded with your
  curiosity, and reflecting the interest you and
  your reader/audience have in the subject.
• Ideally, they should be questions that interest
  the interviewee as wellnot only because he can
  answer them but because they intrigue him too.

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PREPARING THE QUESTIONS

• Great questions can fail, however.
• Devising and wording interview questions may take
  time and thought, but they should not be
  memorized.
• Rather, the shape and thrust of the inquiry
  should be kept in mind, and that will bring out
  the proper, already-worded questions, when they
  fit into the flow of the interview.

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SOURCE

• Fernandez, Doreen G. Face to Face The Craft of
  Interviewing. Mandaluyong, Philippines Cacho
  Publishing House, 1995.