Finding People to Interview

Students,

I hope you all enjoyed the snow! :) I also hope to see many of you at the basketball games tonight. If you have never gone to see the Aaron Academy teams play, it is a lot of fun. Several of the writing students are on the basketball team: Johnny Bobbitt, Josiah Hazelbaker, and Logan Vaughan. Come on out to the game tonight and support your Royals!

How are you doing when it comes to finding people to interview? Last year, I found that many of my students were uncomfortable asking people for interviews. Of course, I think this is a great opportunity for you people to get out of your comfort zones! I'll be the first to admit that it is not easy to call strangers, much less seek them out, and then get up your nerve to ask for an interview.

Here's something to keep in mind: Everyone loves to talk about him/herself. It is human nature. Asking someone to give you a few minutes of her time to talk about what she does and why she does it, or to expound on a subject that she knows and loves, is going to get a YES 99% of the time! (Now Larizzle, I know what you are thinking. You fell into that remaining 1% with me, but I really wanted to say yes to your request for an interview. However, it is my class policy to decline. Every other author you ask will say yes!)

Here's where you look:

• Yellow pages
• College faculty members
• Asking around your church and extended family members
• Go on Amazon to find books written about that subject. Google the author's name to find a personal website or facebook. Contact that person.
• Once you have that first interview, ask your interviewee for names of people he/she knows who would make a good interview.
  

Maybe you have exhausted all these possibilities, and you still cannot find enough people to interview. Let's say that you're trying to find sources on animal physical therapy.

Go to Google. Type in "animal physical therapy"--just like that. Be sure to put quotation marks around it.

I clicked on the link that began "open domain...." Once there, I scanned the page for a name. Hmmm. Licensed Physical Therapist Tanya Doman describes her rehabilitative services for dogs and horses. That looks pretty interesting. Once I clicked on that, I found Tanya's homepage! And down at the bottom it says: Contact!

A Contact button is a wonderful thing. It means I can email that person and ask if she has time for an interview. To get an idea of what to say in your email, check out this LINK.

Hope to see you at the game!