Interview Essay – Writing Tips & Example Questions
Are you trying to write an interview essay? If yes, then know that writing this essay is not easy. This essay conveys information from subjects and provides a relevant context to the essay topic. Although interviews are not often used to write essays, however, do not underestimate the power of this essay. Such an essay is mostly written by school or college students who interview their role models and then write an essay on the topic of the interview.
As it is said earlier, writing this essay is very challenging. Sometimes, as a student, you do not know what the right questions to ask your respondent are. So, keeping this in view, in today’s article, we will look at the tips for writing an interview essay. Along with this, there will also be a mention of top questions and answers. So, let’s start by defining it first.
What is an interview essay?
An essay that explores different angles and perspectives on a topic by using evidence is known as an interview essay. What is the evidence in this essay? The interview transcript given at the start of the essay or in the conclusion section is the evidence. The purpose of this essay varies with the situation. It depends on the topic you are exploring. For example, an interview essay about climate change serves a completely different purpose from an essay on the life of a social media influencer. Hence, this is what an interview essay is.
Some example questions to ask respondents
When you write this essay, you also add an interview transcript in the essay. This transcript is developed by asking some questions from the respondents and recording their answers. Some of the questions that you may ask from respondents are as follows:
- What are your core values?
- How did your upbringing impact your life today?
- What would you like to change about your life and why?
- What has been the biggest factor in your success?
- How do you define success and failure in one word?
Hence, these are some of the questions that you can ask your respondents when writing this essay. These questions may change depending on the essay topic or situation you are in. So, if you ever feel any difficulty in developing questions, you can take essay writing services help.
Top writing tips for an interview essay
After reading the information above, you know what this essay is and some of the questions that you should ask the participants. However, you still do not have an idea of how to write this essay. Hence, a brief description of the writing tips is as follows:
- Think about essay purpose. First of all, you need to think about the interview essay purpose. Why are you writing this essay? This consideration will help you a lot in determining the questions to ask your respondents. Moreover, when you have a defined purpose, you know how to conduct the interview.
- Research your subjects. Before writing this essay, interviewing the subjects is mandatory. To interview them in the right manner, you should know who your subjects are and what they do. Hence, before the interview, make sure to research the respondent or respondents. Gather as much information as you can.
- Brainstorm the questions. Developing the right questions is the most important step in writing an interview essay. It is the questions around which your essay revolves and provides a context to the essay topic. Hence, brainstorm well and develop only questions which are relevant to the topic as well as the situation.
- Schedule the interview. Once you have all the questions in hand that you need to ask your respondents, schedule the interview. It means setting the time with the respondent to collect his responses towards your interview questions. Use professional courtesy when asking for the interview time. Respect the time choice of the respondent.
- Provide interview transcript. Providing an interview transcript in the essay is mandatory. It allows the reader to know the context of the essay and gives him a chance to look at the original questions and answers. So, when you are writing an interview essay, do not just write; also, provide the readers with an interview transcript.
- Organise the findings and write. After the interview, the answers may not be in the right form or format. As you have to write the essay too, organise them. Organise them so that you do not face any difficulty when writing the interview essay. In addition to this, do not forget to edit and proofread the essay.
Conclusion
An interview essay is a type of essay which explores the answers of respondents to certain questions. This is a kind of interview transcript essay where the writer provides the interview transcript in the introduction or conclusion section of the essay. All in all, follow all the tips mentioned above and write this essay accordingly.