Creative Interviewing The Writers Guide to Gathering Information by Asking Questions 3rd Edition
Creative Interviewing The Writers Guide to Gathering Information by Asking Questions 3rd Edition
This comprehensive book covers everything an aspiring interviewer needs to know from developing listening and observation skills to conducting interviews by electronic mail and surfing the Internet for story ideas. Creative Interviewing aids readers by using examples and anecdotal accounts of actual professional experiences. Readers are provided with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare for and conduct a strong interview, how to obtain dramatic anecdotes from sources, how to build conversational rapport, how to conduct interviews for broadcast, and how to cope with the dynamics of a series of interviews on a certain topic. For any professional who wishes to improve their interviewing skills.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Every Reporter Needs to Read Metzler’s Book
“Creative Interviewing” is a standard text in journalism classes. Even if you’re not a student, however, it’s still worth its $60+ cover price. Metzler uses anecdotes, exercises, and statistics to teach prospective (and current!) reporters about the interviewing game.
Are you clueless as to how to set up interviews? More nervous than your respondent? Unsure whether you should record interviews with a tape recorder or take notes? Metzler answers all of these questions and more. Metzler’s brand of journalism is humble and at-odds with sensationalistic television “journalism,” so it’s a refreshing read.
The 3rd edition is from 1996 and thus the chapters on the Internet and e-mail are slightly dated. Hopefully there’s a 4th edition in the works!
5 Stars Excellent How-To resource
Good interviewing skills are essential for freelance writers. Ken Metzler’s book, Creative Interviewing: The Writer’s Guide to Gathering Information by Asking Questions, is an excellent source for learning how to conduct an interview and improving your interviewing techniques.
Did you know that most interviews happen in ten stages? Mr. Metzler explains, “Face-to-Face interviews usually, though not always, run through ten stages. Four stages occur before you even meet your respondent. The success of the six subsequent ones depends largely on how well you accomplish the first four.”
Do you know what the ten interview stages are? Here’s the list from Creating Interviewing:
1. Defining the purpose of the interview
2. Conducting background research
3. Requesting an interview appointment
4. Planning the interview
5. Meeting your respondent: breaking the ice
6. Asking your first questions
7. Establishing an easy rapport
8. Asking the bomb
9. Recovering from the bomb
10. Concluding the interview
Based on this ten stage list, Mr. Metzler details all the ins and outs to creating and conducting interviews. From his text you’ll learn what makes for a constructive interview, details on accomplishing the Ten Stages, how to form and ask questions, find sources, and more. There’s even a chapter on how to be the interviewee, which will hopefully be important to all of us someday.
Creative Interviewing is written in clear, concise prose, with a pleasant sense of humor thrown into the mix. Mr. Metzler also provides plenty of case studies and anecdotes to help you learn by example for your own interviews.
If you’re serious about improving your interviewing skills you’ll want to add Creating Interviewing to your writer’s bookshelf.
5 Stars Required reading for serious journalism students
This book shows you how to conduct just about every type of interview. It also explains concepts, helps the journalist devise a plan and more importantly provides key information on how to cope with the “difficult interview.” In my opinion, “The Writer’s Guide to Gathering Information by Asking Questions: Creatinve Interviewing,” by Ken Metzler should be required reading for serious journalism students everywhere.
“The need for interviewing skills is by no means confined to newspaper writers,” according to the author. And I agree. The corporate world is always interviewing…they are always on the look for new talent. In many cases, they need to be better than simply ask, “where do you want to be in five years.”
Believe or not there truly are many typical errors you want to avoid when interviewing. To this end, you will find a healthy discussion on how to avoid mistakes here. Moreover, this book will help you navigate the tricky interview process. Chapters two and three are terrific. Chapter two outlines the ten stages of the interview. And chapter three covers the conversational dynamics of interviewing. This book even includes a chapter on interviewing excercises.
All in all this book is a valuable tool for everyone interested in making journalism a profession. The gathering of information in journalism is primarily done by oral means. Consequently, it makes sense to seek the knowledge of a book that helps you control an interview and how to handle sensitive issues. Highly recommended.
Bert Ruiz
5 Stars Everything needed for great interviewing
This compact paperback is filled with information, from defining your interviewing problem, anatomy of interview, dynamics, probing, and strategy. The book contains actual interviews, with exercises, special problems. Guide is offered for newsbeat reporting to broadcast television and personality interviewing. A wonderful, thorough, guide to creative interviewing. ….MzRizz.
4 Stars Tactics And Strategies To Make The Most Out Of An Interview
I am not a writer nor journalist but a person in the field of marketing. Since journalists are the experts at extracting information from people they are interviewing, I thought this could help me in my field. In marketing, it is necessary for me to understand why people buy or have an affinity with a certain product or person. I interview people in the same manner journalists do but with a slightly different objective in mind. I explore the person’s mind to find an unkown reason for buying a certain product just as journalist wants to discover something never revealed before to the public about an actor or politician. This book provided me with many new insights about the person being interviewed, their reasons for opening up to the interviewer and how to conduct the interview in an organised manner while also being flexible when things start to lead astray from my original plans. This book has helped me in many ways. I highly recommend it to business people to read as well.