College life is different and varied.
Students have to complete numerous assignments, including essays, articles, research papers, and reports.
The types of essays are also numerous that may lead students to a tight spot.
If you have already written a descriptive or argument essay, you may consider yourself a good writer.
But what will you do if you should write an interview essay?
You should consider that an interview essay is not a transcript of your conversation.
It is a paper that requires your personal writing and data interpretation.
If your professor assigned you this task, you should learn how to write an interview paper.
You need to understand what an interview paper means.
This task presupposes that you do not research the information in books and articles, but talk to a person.
You should collect all the information you need concerning a particular idea, and then critically assess it.
While writing an interview paper, you should refer to information obtained from the discussion of a particular topic.
So, when deciding to complete an essay on a certain topic, you should find a person who is well acknowledged in it.
This professional should give answers to all your questions and help you understand the smallest details of the issue in focus.
If you have never written an interview paper, you should be aware of some interview essay writing steps.
Check out the information provided in this article and enjoy how easy the writing process may be.
Choose an interview format
You should gather the information for your paper before writing it.
You should decide how you are going to run your conversation.
There are three major ways of data collection for such a task:
1. Narrative
A narrative format presupposes that a person you have decided to interview may tell the story from the position he or she sees.
You may ask some questions to clarify the idea.
Consider that the initiative in the discussion is in the hands of a person who shares information with you.
The interviewee sets the direction of communication.
2. Q&A
A questions and answers format presupposes you ask questions, and an interviewee replies.
You need to develop good questions to ensure that the replies give you all the necessary information.
Try to avoid closed-ended questions as such replies can be ineffective for you.
Use open-ended questions to motivate the interviewee to give more details and describe the events and concepts.
You set the direction of communication.
3. Conversational
A conversational style is a type of communication, where you run a conversation with a person.
It is a combination of narrative and Q&A formats.
The interviewee can start the discussion, you may ask a question, and etc.
Each of you may set the direction of communication.
Define the paper purpose
You need to indicate why you are going to write an interview paper.
This may help you choose the type of conversation and assist you in choosing the questions.
The purpose helps you select appropriate words for communication and writing.
You need to know your audience.
Do you compose the paper for students or a general audience?
Are your target audience scientists of people with majors in medicine or engineer?
The language can matter much depending on the target audience.
The essay type may also depend on the purpose.
What do you want to achieve with your essay?
Do you want to inform or convince your readers?
Do you want to strengthen the common idea or justify an opposing view?
The responses to these questions help you define the purpose of your work and choose the direction for your interview.
Develop questions
After you have decided on the type of interview, its purpose, and the person you are going to talk to, you should develop the questions.
Make sure that your questions are clear and straightforward.
This is not a conversation with a friend where you may talk for an unlimited amount of time.
Take into account that a person who has agreed to share the information with you may be busy.
Do not waste time in vain.
Formulate your questions in a clear and concise way.
Ensure that a person can understand your question and provide a clear response without any clarifications.
You may wish to develop more questions.
In the flow of your conversation, you may see that some questions become unnecessary.
You are free to ask only valid questions.
Edit your list and omit those which have already been touched upon.
Create an Outline
After the conversation, you may start to write an essay.
An interview paper is specific in data collection.
It appears a standard essay taking into consideration its structure.
Develop an outline for your paper.
Your work should consist of the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion.
Introduce an interview essay with the topic and a person who helped you obtain the required information for your paper.
A more detailed outline for your main body may help you include all the issues you wish to discuss.
Also, you should think over the order of the ideas, and ensure that none of the aspects is omitted or repeated.
A detailed outline always helps you write a paper faster.
List some major ideas to cover in your conclusion.
Write a thesis statement
You have to pay much attention to your thesis statement.
You should develop a clear vision of what your paper is about after having read your thesis.
If you need to sound professional and academic, you should be strong and focused in your thesis.
A thesis statement is 1-2 sentences that indicate the idea you are going to confirm in your work.
Do not make general statements or vague exclamations.
Your thesis should be clear and appropriate.
Each idea in your paper should refer to your thesis, either support or explain it.
Edit and proofread
Proofreading and editing are two parts of interview essay writing you have to accomplish.
Do not ignore this final stage.
While editing, you may notice some logical inconsistencies or vague meanings of some sentences.
Editing allows seeing the essay as a unique piece of writing and making major corrections.
Proofreading allows observing spelling and grammar mistakes and correcting them.
It is smart to do the editing and proofreading several hours after writing or even the next day.
In this case, you give some time for your brain to reconsider some ideas and return to your work with a fresh mind.
How to finish an interview essay
The last aspect is always memorable.
You may end your essay in several ways:
Some variants of how to finish your paper:
- Restate the thesis with the positions of the provided facts
- Mention how the interview has affected you
- Provide your reaction to the interview ideas
- Answer the questions asked in the paper
- Simple logical conclusion.
Writing an interview essay you may come up with two opposing conclusions.
You may confirm your initial position.
You may also reject it referring to the interview results.
You decide which strategy to choose.
The conclusion should serve as a summary of your overall writing.