Interview Questions

Discussion Board:

1. (10 points) Interview Data: Post your interview questions as well as your audio, video, and/or interview transcripts. (If the interviews are long, partial transcripts are fine, but it will be important, when writing your articles, to have some of the interviewee’s exact words available.)

2. (10 points. 5 points for each lead). Write two sample leads to your feature article. Each lead will be around 4 or 5 paragraphs long; these can be longer paragraphs or can be short paragraphs of one or two sentences each. In the first lead, use first person (I/me) to develop your own perspective or reactions as a journalist and as somebody who is there interacting with the interviewee. (Use Finkel’s “Blind Man Who Taught Himself to See” as an example). In the second lead, write about the interviewee(s) in third person, leaving yourself out of the narrative (Use Marcum’s “Dreams Die in Drought” as an example):

How to Write a Lead for a Feature Article: Feature articles give a lot of creative freedom for how to write, but they do tend to share some common characteristics. For example, the typical lead to a feature article starts with a hook for readers and develops an initial story or anecdote in the first few paragraphs. Around the fourth or fifth paragraph, there will be a nut graph paragraph which explains the article’s main subject and/or theme. For examples, look back at the first five paragraphs of Finkel’s “The Blind Man Who Taught Himself to See.” https://www.mensjournal.com/features/the-blind-man-who-taught-himself-to-see-20120504/ (Links to an external site.)  The introductory section starts with the anecdote where Kish tells the journalist that he is parked too close to the curb, which amazes him since Kish is blind. Then in the fifth paragraph (the nut graph), the article’s main subject/theme is established. This is an article about a blind man who taught himself how to use echolocation to find out about his surroundings and about the significance of this discovery. For another example, refer to Marcum’s “Dreams Die in Drought.” https://www.pulitzer.org/files/2015/feature-writing/marcum/01marcum2015.pdf (Links to an external site.)  For the first four paragraphs, Marcum develops the story of Francisco’s and Rafael’s work in the fields. Then in the fifth paragraph (the nut graph), we find out that this will be an article about the hardships brought about by the drought.