Genre Research.

        Though it seems intuitive, I decided to look into what makes a good interview: what questions, what format, what tone of voice, what setting.

        First, every interview should have an objective. This will allow the interviewer to choose the right interviewee, the correct questions, and a fitting setting. This objective could be the goal of talking about a certain topic, reaching a conclusion, having a healthy debate, etc. Although the

interviewer should not create bias and influence my interviewee's answers, it will be important to sketch out a rough path the interviewer wants the interview to go down; it will need some structure. This structure usually follows a structure typical of stories: exposition-complication- resolution.

        Second, interviewers should be doing some background research on their interviewees. Especially considering the topics I want to speak about in my interview, it would not make sense for me to be meeting my interviewee for the first time. Luckily, this is not a problem. Knowing someone’s background allows for more thoughtful questions and hopefully a more fluid interview. It will also let the interviewer avoid or approach difficult questions with caution. I think that last point will be important when touching upon personal topics like identity and childhood.

        Third, questions. An interview’s core is about asking questions, but it is also important to not follow the script (questions) too rigidly. The best interviews come out of comfortable environments, so the interviewer should make sure that the interview feels more like a conversation than an interrogation. Questions should generally be open-ended, and if not, they should lead to an open-ended, “Why is that?” or something of this nature. The questions should encourage the interviewee to tell valuable and engaging responses. Like I mentioned earlier, they should also not be leading questions. Sometimes, it is helpful to create a list of questions and then send it to the interviewee. This will give them the opportunity to look over the questions and at least have a rough idea for what to answer or what direction the interview will be heading. Also, don’t refer to the list of questions! For example, interviewers should not be saying, “The next question on my list...”

        One interesting tip I learned was that it is helpful to write the interviewee’s bio for them. Their introduction will provide an important base for the topics that follow, but sometimes they may not have prepared a bio or the bio they have prepared might be out of context to the general topic of your interview.