Keeping It Personal

Has technology made writing (and life in general) less personal? It has in some respects. We’ve all eaten in a restaurant where the vast majority of patrons ignore their companions as they stare into their smart phones. For a writer, a few keystrokes make research so much easier and quicker than decades ago when a trip to the library and newspapers’ archives were necessities. But what may be lost if writers only use the internet to research a story?

As discussed in last month’s blog,https://www.caryunkelbach.com/tips-cautions-web-research/ , the web carries with it some potential pitfalls, including inaccurate and incomplete information. While providing a good starting point for research of a criminal episode, for example, it leaves open the question of whether the reporter or the police department’s public information officer accurately described the events or precisely quoted witnesses. Did other witnesses come forward a day or so later with more information which wasn’t reported in the media or released by the police?

Cross checking information contained in online stories and comparing them with other written reports may help to fetter out inaccuracies and unearth updated information. Depending on the situation, calling the reporting officer or a witness to try to verify information in the records or news stories also helps. These steps help to check for accuracy but what do they miss?

The human side! Even phone interviews may not capture the true persona of the interviewee. Although you may hear a hesitation before a person responds to a question, you miss the person’s facial expressions unless you are skyping them. You also can’t tell if another person, sitting out of sight, is assisting by passing notes with answers or if the interviewee is checking prepared answers to anticipated questions.

Time and money may prevent in-person interviews because of your subject’s location. I certainly didn’t consider an in-person interview of one individual for my narrative nonfiction book because he lived in the northernmost Canadian territory!  The telephone just had to suffice. Risky travel during the middle of a northern winter also may preclude interviews of persons who live only a hundred miles away.

But, if feasible, consider some in-person interviews so that the humanness of your story flows off the page. Here’s one approach to help select individuals for face-to-face interviews:

First, list the names of prospective interviewees for an article or book. Next, consider whether a telephone interview will suffice or if an in-person interview is preferable. How do you decide? Answers to the following questions may help to make that decision:

• Is the interviewee a central character in your story?
• Or is the individual otherwise critical to your article?
• May the interviewee have vital information?
• Is the individual likely to possess documents and/or photographs which may be helpful? He/she may be more likely to mention and show these documents to you during an in-person interview.
• Is it important to establish an ongoing relationship so that you can contact he/she again as your story develops?

An even more important question is whether you want to capture a picture of the individual in your mind to pass on the image to your readers. In-person interviews allow you to describe subjects in detail: their engaging smile, twinkling eyes, receding hairline, stature, dress, speech patterns and perhaps any idiosyncrasies.

You also can watch the body language of your subjects when they answer questions. Do they appear relaxed or tense? Are they straining to hear your questions or flinching when you probe their answers? Your observations should help you assess your subject’s credibility which arguably is easier to do in person.

Face-to-face interview also may help establish a faster and perhaps closer rapport with your subjects. If your interviewees appear nervous as evidenced by their fidgeting, avoiding eye contact or sweating, you can seek out the cause by switching up questions or probing harder. They just may appear nervous because of their inexperience with interviews. In turn, they may relax when they see your humanness, as you fumble finding a pen or hooking up a recording device. The give and take during in-person interviews may translate into a more cooperative subject and an agreement to respond to follow-up questions.

Once you’ve compiled an in-person interview wish list, assess whether time, money and distance makes those face-to face interviews practical or even feasible.

The internet has traded personal touch for the expediency of gathering information. But often times it’s that personal touch, those insights that you glean while chatting with an interviewee seated in the same room with you, that makes a story come alive. Good luck with your interviews!