Writing an interview

It also shows how to ask questions that bring out interesting answers, not flat ones.

What the interview format is

An interview is a written record of a conversation between an interviewer and a subject, made for readers of a publication. In IGCSE English it appears as a directed-writing task.

You might interview a character from a passage, a person in a certain job or an invented person, and present it for a magazine or website. Unlike other formats, you write two voices, not one.

That is also the challenge. Many students can write one strong voice, but fewer can write two that really differ. The interviewer must sound curious and in control.

The subject must sound like a different person with their own way of speaking. When both voices feel real, the interview reads like a conversation you overheard.

Layout, two voices and shape

Most interviews begin with a short introduction. It says who is being interviewed, where, and why they are interesting. Then the questions and answers follow, laid out so the reader always knows who is speaking.

The interviewer’s questions are shorter and guide the conversation. The subject’s answers are longer and carry the content. The tone is neutral to semi-formal, but the subject’s voice can be as distinctive as their character needs.

A good interview has a shape: an easy first question, deeper questions as trust grows, one revealing moment, and a polite ending. Layout rules differ by board, so check our qualification pages.

A worked example, written by our teachers

This is our own original writing, made for teaching.

Meeting the woman who runs towards fires

When I arrive, Farah is still in her overalls and smells faintly of smoke. She waves me to a plastic chair and pours two cups of tea before I can ask my first question.

Interviewer: Most people run away from a burning building. What made you run towards one?

Farah: People expect a dramatic answer, like a childhood dream or a rescue I saw. The truth is more boring.

I was nineteen, I needed a job, and this one was hiring. The wish to help came later, when I understood what the job really was.

Interviewer: And what is the job, really?

Farah: Mostly waiting. Then, for ninety seconds, you give everything you have.

Then more waiting. Nobody tells you that.

The interviewer’s questions are short and probing. Farah’s answers are longer, personal and a little surprising. The two voices do not sound alike, and that is what the format rewards.

What a strong interview includes

• A short introduction that sets the subject and place.
• Two clearly different voices.
• Open questions that make the subject talk.
• Answers that show character through detail and opinion.
• A shape that deepens as the conversation continues.
• A calm ending, not an abrupt stop.

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is two voices that sound the same, so the interview reads like one person talking to themselves. The second is closed questions that get dead answers, such as a string of “yes” and “no”.

The third is an answer that is really the writer’s essay, spoken as a long speech no real person would give. The fourth is no shape: questions in random order that never build.

Read your interview aloud. If you cannot tell the voices apart with your eyes closed, rewrite one.

How this helps your other writing

Interviews train voice and character, which also power narrative writing and your understanding of characters in literature. Writing good questions teaches you to notice what is interesting.

Managing a conversation on the page builds control you use in every format. See our skills guides, our annotated model responses and our practice tasks.

Next steps

Compare your own interview with the annotated model responses, then try the practice tasks. The leaflet or guide is another directed-writing format that needs a clear reader in mind.

Students usually get stuck when both speakers use the same words and the same sentence length. In 1-to-1 lessons, our teachers read the answers aloud with the student and rewrite one speaker’s lines until they sound like a different person. This is part of our First Language English tuition, from RM70/hr.

Bring a recent interview to a paid one-hour trial lesson, and the teacher who would continue will mark it with you.

Next, visit our original practice tasks to write this form to a real brief. Our IGCSE English tuition page explains how lessons run. When you are ready, the paid one-hour trial is the first step.