Learn How to Write an Interview Paper in APA Format

One of the most popular definitions says that an interview is a genre of journalism, which is a conversation of a journalist with a political, public, or another figure on topical issues. In journalism, interviews historically arose and developed primarily in the print media. Then this experience was taken over in the 20th century by radio and television. At the turn of the last two centuries, interviews became a typical phenomenon of various network resources.

Today it is obvious that not only specialists, experts, officials, and people with authority but also ordinary citizens are participating in the interview. No less important in modern conditions is the expansion of the thematic framework of the genre. The habitual canonical rules of using interviews are expanding. It becomes not just an instrument of journalistic creativity and not only in information programs and broadcasts but also an active structural element of information analytics and arts journalism.

The purpose of the interview is to obtain relevant, interesting information from a competent, knowledgeable person. The essence of this genre is the alternation of questions and answers, which constitute a single semantic and emotional whole, united by one theme. In this definition, it is essential to understand the interview as a process of communication, which has a very specific, pragmatic goal.

How to Write an Interview Essay

These tips will help you understand how to write an interview essay. Your text should start with a small author’s explanation of the circumstances under which the interview was taken, and then the most important questions that were asked during the interview should be described. You must select the key phrase from the conversation with the interlocutor, which will become the title for your essay. As a rule, it characterizes his or her personality and views on the issues raised in the conversation.

The most important step in work on the interview is the procedure of confirming the material prepared by the journalist. Your interlocutor must be given the opportunity to read the text in printed form. The purpose of such a check is to clarify the wording, details, information and improve the quality of the material by monitoring the result of the translation of oral speech into a written one. Naturally, the interviewee has the full right to correct the text presented by the correspondent since it is the guarantee of his or her public reputation.

The choice of location for the interview plays an important role. The smallest requirements are put forward when organizing interviews for print media. The journalist only needs an interviewee and a voice recorder. However, in this case, you should consider the place of the conversation. If you require an official opinion of an expert, most likely you will receive an interview right in his or her office. For an interview related to the peculiarities of the personal (or family) life of the object of your attention, it is preferable to have a less formal setting (a cafe, a cozy hall, or any other room). In the case of natural or man-made disasters, accidents, and other extreme situations, the journalists have to be content with the fact that the conversation will take place right on the spot of the event, usually in exterior conditions.

Interview Essay Types

This information will help you figure out which interview essay types exist today. With all the current popularity of the interview genre in print and electronic media, two general types determine its diversity. The first type can be described as an interview in connection with something (event, problem, fact). As a rule, it is of a specific nature, has an informational occasion and is thematically oriented. The most typical examples here are interviews of officials on issues of public and political life and socio-economic development.

The second type of interview is not specifically aimed at an event, a problem, or a fact. In this case, the factors determining the structure of the conversation are the identity of the person being interviewed, the balance of the degree of abstractness and concreteness of the topics discussed, their timeless nature. It can be said that in such a situation, a conversation with a famous and popular person is constructed as an interview about the meaning of life, where the biographical details of the dialogue participant give impetus to broader and more general conclusions.

The most important thing here is the interlocutor and his or her personality. The distinction between the two general types of interviews in current journalistic practice occurs along the lines of goal-setting. In the first case, the interview is specifically aimed at obtaining information, which is its purpose. In the second case, the purpose and meaning of the interview is the fact of the conversation with the person, the leader of the opinion, whose judgments, due to the popularity and fame of their author, may be of interest to readers, listeners, or viewers.

However, in both types of interviews, the presence of questioning and answering people, the situational sequence of questions asked, and the answers received become the structure-forming elements of this genre of journalistic creativity. These integrating features make it possible to speak of an interview as one of the most common ways of obtaining information, as a form of communication between people with certain regularities, as a professional method of a journalist, with clear social characteristics and a moral and psychological framework. Interviews can be conducted by two or more journalists, which is found in the practice of Internet media. However, such cases are quite rare.