Interview Story

You are to interview an interesting person and submit a story based on that interview. The PDF file will provide all of the information required for this assignment. Please see it.
NOTE: The first paragraph of every assignment is called the lead. It is important the lead be no longer than 35 words. Subsequent paragraphs should not exceed 40 words.

As discussed in lecture, interviews are a rich, valuable
and unique source of information. Interviewing people
about what they know or have experienced often is the
only way to gain such information. Not everything can be
found online. Learning to effectively interview is a highly
useful skill relevant to not just mass media, but every
professionalfield.
Applying the principles outlined in the topical lecture, you
will interview the most interesting person you know. This
person could be a relative, a friend, a teacher or anybody
you know.
The key to writing a good story is making sure that your subject
would be interesting to other people as well.

This is a difficult decision. For instance, my parents would not
have made good interview subjects. While I loved and
respected them, and they worked hard, there was nothing
about their lives that would interest others.

By contrast, one of my great grandfathers came to the United
States from Mexico as a 17-year-old orphan. He came alone in
1870 and settled in Texas. He worked for the U.S. Calvary
caring for horses and over several years became a big rancher
in Texas. His story is interesting.

Some people are interesting because they did something

remarkable. When I was a journalist, I interviewed a city bus
driver who never missed a day of work in 50 years. The story I
wrote described a bit about his life, but the only thing that
made him interesting was his long streak of not missing a day of
work.

The person you select could be an immigrant. Often the
immigrant experience is intriguing because it is a major life
event. Almost every immigrant I interviewed as a journalist had
experienced great difficulty in coming to America and getting
used to a very different culture and way of life than what they
had known in their homeland.

If you are uncertain whether you have selected an appropriate
interview subject, email one of us with your idea. We will give
you our opinion.

The story you write will be a fairly short profile. Describe
a bit about the person and then go into detail about the
thing or things that make your interview subject
interesting.
Do not write in a question-and-answer format. You are
to write a full-bodied story
So, how should you proceed? Your goal is to elicit enough
information to produce an interesting profile.
First, prepare a list of questions. Think of them as a
blueprint that will ensure you cover the basic territory.
Plan for an interview of at least 20 minutes, and if at all