Writing up your interview

Beach Sand, Stone Harbor, NJ
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer

If you followed the suggestions in my previous posts on interviews, you already have a deck, introduction, or both, plus your questions. After the actual interview, you may find you raised additional questions and took down several quotes. These all provide the scaffolding for your written piece. Read over your notes, and begin filling in the narrative for the written interview based on how the questions were answered. If you have any additional questions for the interviewee, don’t hesitate to contact them for clarification. Set the piece aside for a day or so if you have the time and are not on a strict deadline, then reread and edit out anything that is irrelevant to the topic. Remember that you do not have to use every quote you got from the interview, just those that shed light on the topic. Be careful, however, not to omit anything that would skew the interview’s point of view away from what the expert and toward any bias of your own. You want the piece to be as objective as possible—the hallmark of good journalism. In general, publications do not want interviewees to review and approve the final product, to assure openness of information. In special cases, however, it may be okay to have the interviewee look at direct quotes for accuracy. You need to know the publication’s exact position on this issue before allowing your interviewee to review anything, including direct quotes. An excellent resource for detailed principles on reporting is the Association of Health Care Journalists.