Frequently Asked Questions...Among Other Things

One of these days, I'm going to get an interview right. I just know it. There'll be one time, with this one person, where I'll be on the ball and ask all the right questions and get them to say funny and interesting things that would be good for the article and I'll cover every base and have no questions left by the end. My article will be full of witty quotes, essential information, and leave the reader saying, "Wow. That was cool."

Until then, I'll continue to stop halfway through articles and realize I don't know a crucial piece of information about my subject. And send them a humble email asking them for said information that I never asked them while I had them sitting across from me, voice recorder ticking.

Oh, and have five mini-interviews for award applications, and intelligently arrange to meet them at a crowded coffee shop. The interview recordings were 1 part interview, 2 parts laughing people, and 5 parts roaring espresso machine.

The one interview that did go well was one where I tagged along with my boss. It would be my first feature article; he thought it would be prudent if he came along and led the interview, while I watched. (My first thought: "Oh, thank God.")

The subject was a professor who headed a consortium of steel companies and the NSF, researching the casting process. We'd planned to be with him for about a half an hour--he gave us twice that. He would take a single question and launch into explanations, tangents, anecdotes, and we could only sit and listen.

My boss asked him questions about his research group, the award he had recently won, how his consortium worked...but that's not what I wanted to know. My question was about his research, using numerical methods to minimize defects in continuous casting.  What advantages did continuous casting have? How did it work? Could the molds be different shapes?

I noticed this in my science journalism class--journalists ask different questions than scientists do. Journalists want to know the story. Scientists want to know the science. Their interests lie in different places.

I discovered, however, looking back on the interview while I was writing the article, that I couldn't use much of what he had said about the process. That's not what the article was about. The article was describing him, his consortium, and his research. No one would read the article for an explanation of the continuous casting process. That wasn't my job.

So in my interview with a grad student today, I tried to cut down. I stayed focused. What is your research on? What is your end goal? What award did you win? Which professor are you working for? And in focusing so hard to ask the right questions, I never asked the necessary ones. What are you majoring in/which department are you in? How many students presented in your symposium? Where did you go for undergrad? What year are you?

That's right. I don't know what year of grad school my subject is in, or even her major.

One of these days, I'm going to get an interview right.

Until then, I'll send her a humble email....

**stay tuned for next week, when I interview a professor for a feature article--on my own. eeeep.