How do you gather that information?  You can’t just send a list of questions and have people answer them.  I’ve tried that in a pinch, and it doesn’t really yield the essence of the subject.  You have to engage the person, show your interest in the company or subject, and encourage and direct the interview to obtain the information you need. 

So, how do you do that?  Are there certain steps you must take, or 10 Commandments of Interviewing?  In a way, yes.  Most are common sense, but important nonetheless.

Before the Interview

1. Research
Check out competitors’ websites, brochures and any other material that will give you a feel for the overall subject matter.  Find out what the competitors think is important, what their websites or brochures include, and what industries they serve.  All this information will help you develop questions and guide the interview.  It will also let the interviewee know that you are a professional who has done your homework and is ready to lead the interview process.

2. Questions
Although you don’t want to go strictly by an outline or a list of questions, you should have them prepared nonetheless.  The questions will assist you in making sure you cover all the critical subject matter you need, and the outline will help direct the interview when there is a lull in the conversation.

3. Recorder
I tape all my interviews and transcribe them later.  Before each interview, I make sure there is a new battery in my digital recorder and that it is working properly.  Taping the interview is a handy step I learned long ago.  Because I tape the entire process, I am not writing feverishly while the interviewee is speaking.  I don’t have to pause the interview while I finish writing before I ask the next question.  And, most importantly, I can look the person in the eye, engage him, and really concentrate on the subject matter.  If you do use a recorder, check it a few times during the interview to make sure it is still taping.

At the Interview

1. Be on time
My father taught me to be on time.  He said that when you are late without a good reason, you communicate to the person you are meeting that he just isn’t all that important.  That’s not the message I want to send during my interviews, so I leave plenty of time to get to the meeting place on time.

2. Be prepared to lead the meeting
I’ve found that, very often, the meeting is turned over to the interviewer almost immediately.  After all, it is primarily a fact-finding meeting, and you are the fact-finder! 

3. Put the interviewee at ease
You have to use some common sense here.  Some people just want to get down to business and give you the information you want.  Some (but not many) come to the interview with documents and information for you.  But most interviewees are looking to you to set the tone of the interview.  Be friendly; if appropriate, engage in some casual conversation first.  If you are at ease, your interviewee will be also.

4. Start with easy questions
Check the spelling of each person’s name and exact titles.  Find out how long he has worked for the company, and ask about career or education background, if applicable.

5. Listen carefully
It’s up to you to coax the information out of the interviewee, with your questions and also with your careful listening skills.  Don’t be so worried about what your next question will be that you miss some very important nugget the person might say. 

6. Ask questions that are open-ended
Don’t ask for yes or no answers, or you will get them. 

7. Gently and courteously guide the interview
While you want the interviewee to feel comfortable and give you more than one-word answers, you also do not want to listen for 40 minutes about his recent trip to Cancun.  Even if the person is talking about business, you don’t want to get off onto a tangent that you know you will never use in your writing.  For example, the subject matter expert may be talking about the types of widgets his company makes.  That may be very important to what you need to write.  But when the conversation starts to veer into a discussion of a new vendor and whether or not that vendor is servicing the company properly, you need to gently steer the conversation back to the company’s core competency – their products and services.  Keep your objectives and your outline for the interview in mind.

8. Be sure you understand
If you are not sure about a certain process or procedure being explained, ask for the information to be repeated.  Paraphrase what is being said until you are sure you understand the subject matter.  I’ve found people to be very understanding when you say, “Can we back up just a minute?  You were explaining this process, and I understand it up to this point, but then you lost me.”  The interviewee will be happy to review the topic with you until you understand.  It shows professionalism on your part and a sincere desire to get the facts right.

9. Make sure only one person speaks at a time
In interviews where many people are present, you need to guide the conversation so that only one person is speaking at any given time.  Otherwise, you will not be able to remember who said what, and your taped recording will just be a jumble of cacophonic sounds.

10. Names and titles
Before you leave the interview, make sure you have everyone’s name spelled correctly and you know correct titles.

11. Closing the interview
Don’t leave an interview without paving the way for follow-up questions.  Say something like this: “Now, if I have any questions when I am transcribing this or writing the website copy, may I call you on the phone to clarify the point?”  By doing this, you put the interviewee on notice that you may call again.  And if you do have to call to clarify a point, he will be more than willing to field that call.

12. Your contact information
Make sure you have given each person being interviewed your contact information.  The interviewee may think of additional information he wants to share later, or he may have a question for you about the work you are doing.

13. “Thank you”
Be sure to thank the interviewee for the time spent with you.  Be friendly, appreciative and professional.

After the Interview

1. Get your notes in order
Whether or not you tape the interview, get all information together as quickly as possible after the interview.  For me, that means transcribing the tape so I know exactly what was said and then organizing any additional information I may have been given.  When it comes time to write the piece, you’ll be organized and ready.

2. Consider a thank-you note
When I interview a person for a company website, I don’t send a thank you note as a follow-up.  But when I interview a person for a feature story in a newspaper or magazine, I generally do send a follow-up thank you note.  It’s a subjective matter, but at least consider it.

3. Meet your deadline
Don’t promise a deadline you can’t meet, and meet the deadline you promise. 

Those are all my words of wisdom concerning interviewing.  I used to be very nervous conducting an interview.  Now I really look forward to the whole process.  I’ve found that by just being myself, I can put others at ease.  And if I follow the guidelines mentioned above, I’ll leave the interview with the information I need to do a good job for my client.

Ellen

* Are you a “cold hearted person” or a “cold-hearted person”?

* When do you say “half-hour” instead of “half hour”? 

* If you create something for the second time, is that “re-creation” or “recreation”?

* If you’re a “98-pound weakling,” are you also a “44.5-kilogram weakling”?

* Was the Hyphen War really about a hyphen? What would your Czech friend say?

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphen and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphen_War for answers.

(Many thanks to David R., a self-proclaimed “stickler” about clear and concise writing, who provided the content for this post. Even a writing stickler has his grammatical soft spots, however. He admitted, ”I’ll bandy about a friendly fragment periodically. And I love dashes!” We do, too — as long as they aren’t overused.)

For fun, test your punctuation skills with “The Punctuation Game” at Lynne Truss’s site.

Let us know how you scored!

Ann

Why should people care about punctuation and grammar?  First of all, it’s our language, and it is important to use it correctly.  Secondly, punctuation is critical to the understanding of a passage.  For instance, consider the meaning of these two sentences, changed drastically just by punctuation:

A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.

This example is taken from the 2003 book Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.  This is not a grammar book nor is Truss, by her own admission, a grammarian.  The book addresses the endangered species of proper punctuation in a witty, pointed and delightful manner.  It’s an easy read, but one you will not soon forget.

Below are two excerpts from this book that show the importance of proper punctuation to the meaning of a passage.

Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is all about.  You are generous, kind, thoughtful.  People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior.  You have ruined me for other men.  I yearn for you.  I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart.  I can be forever happy–will you let me be yours?
Jill

Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is.  All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you.  Admit to being useless and inferior.  You have ruined me.  For other men I yearn!  For you I have no feelings whatsoever.  When we’re apart I can be happy forever.  Will you let me be?
Yours,
Jill

It’s a great book about the serious topic of abusing the English language.  Buy it, read it, and take it to heart.  Maybe you, too, will become a grammar geek.  Who’s to say (or is it whose?)?

Ellen

To give your site text appeal, you need words that work. You need well-written content to promote your products and services, increase traffic, and retain customers–you need websites that communicate effectively to today’s Internet users.

You need WebWriters.

Professional writers Ellen Olivetti and Ann Kroeker, creators of WebWriters, compose quality text that leads readers through a site’s architecture. And, while we specialize in web writing, we’re certainly not limited to that.

Our years of experience in corporate communications enable us to provide copy for all of your print materials–including brochures, ads, B2B communications, scripts, and manuals–helping maintain a consistent style throughout.

Now that you’ve found us, it’s time to get to know us.

Here’s our blog. We’ll write about web text, copywriting and the importance of content.

In the sidebar, we’ll link you to websites that have used our services (see: Websites using WebWriters) and others we applaud for great design and content (see: Websites We Applaud).

And feel free to contact us anytime: ellen@yourwebwriters.com or ann@yourwebwriters.com.

We’re WebWriters. Content Counts.