Tag: English

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Comparative Essay between Duffy and Paul Nash

For your next portfolio post:

Explore the global issue ‘politics, power and justice’ in relation to Nash and Duffy. You will need to narrow this down (e.g zoom in on the effect of conflict on notions of masculinity). Please clearly state at the start what the global issue is and how you have narrowed it down.

Pick one Paul Nash painting and one Duffy poem to explore in some detail, and compare them. This could be an essay (although will obviously need to include some images for Nash), some bullet points and some diagrams, a series of annotated images, or any other form. BUT I need it to show evidence of deep thinking and connection making, as well as some analysis.

I want evidence to some extra reading (you could hyperlink some articles about your global issue focus, you could add some quotations about Duffy or Nash etc.).

Before you start, can you also quickly respond to the feedback on your previous portfolio post, and, if you have not already done so, post that on your portfolio (many were handed in as G-docs)

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First Draft on a Comparative Essay between Carol Ann Duffy and Eli Rezkallah

The representation of women through objectification and stereotypes has resulted in the marginalisation of women throughout most cultures around the world. This has resulted in damaging effects on their relationships with others and women’s self-esteem such as the Me Too Movement, and early forms of such feminist movements have occured during both the 20th and 21st cenutry. Carol Ann Duffy and Eli Rezkallah subvert traditional gender roles in order to reveal their values in concern with the portrayal of women in literature and advertising, exploring how such representations have  a direct effect on women in the real world. On one hand, Rezkallah created a parody of a 1950s advertisement by Van Heusen to satirically inverting misogynistic gender roles. On the other hand, Duffy based her poem, “Little Red Cap” one the fairy tale, Little Red Cap/Little Red Riding Hood but in contrast with the fairy tale, the narrator is in power and control and therefore challenges the traditional gender roles of women. Both Duffy and Rezkallah have used their respective intertextual parody to convey the marginalisation of women while reinstating new contemporary values that undermine that original texts.

Firstly, Duffy inverts the traditional role of women in fairy tales although still keeping in tradition with approaching sexual maturity and portrays Little Red Cap in a new light as a girl transitioning from childhood to womanhood. The juxtaposition of each line in the first two lines of the first stanza such as “at childhood’s end” in contrast to “houses petered out” and “playing fields” in contrast to “factory, allotments” reveals that Duffy has reinstated the main character as a girl on the verge of sexual maturity through transition of “playing” symbolising children and “factory” as the world of adults. Red Cap has now entered the dangerous adults world rather than the safe children’s world and where this new world is dominated by men. However, the third line inserts an ambiguous narrative in Duffy’s reimagined fairy tale. On the one hand, it seems as though the poet represents the actual or at least the traditional roles of women where women are “kept, like mistresses” for men’s sexual pleasure. However, on the other hand, “kneeling married men” could refer to the shift in power and imply sincerity and reverence. In addition, there is the irony in that man who is interested in working in allotments would not be considered to be interested in illicit sexual affairs, yet “kneeling” could also convey deceitful behaviour along with the “kept” women. Despite this, Duffy portrays red cap as the character in power and control by describing here initial encounter with the wolf has “clapped” suggesting authority.
Likewise, in the second stanza, Red Cap ensures her dominance by making sure the wolf has “spotted” as she asserts, in a way, her dominance by seeking out the wolf first, despite the wolf perhaps symbolising a sexual predator and the allegorical figure of all men. It challenges the roles of women even though the lines before it, convey the traditional roles of men with a few exceptions mainly that the wolf is described as being intellectual which is in contrast to the original wolf in the fairy tale as “reading his verse out loud” conveys that he is literate. Nevertheless, “wolfy drawl” reveals the stereotype that women are attracted to bad boys and thus portraying the wolf as although intellectual, there is still the patriarchal and predatory instincts beneath. The wolf is experienced in sex through the choice of red wine through the word choices of “red” that connotes passion and “wine” that connotes experience. In spite of the sexual predatory nature of the wolf, red cap adopts an innocent persona on purpose and creates irony in that she is the sexual predator. Duffy downplays that the wolf is a threat and that Red Cap has an equal interest in sex, discrediting the patriarchalistic view that girls are frightened of sex. Duffy has aimed to disprove the stereotypes of women in order to express her view and perspective on the sexuality of both men and women, with particular attention to the representation of women through her sex-posivite feminism standpoint in this poem.

Another mean of comparison:

 

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IB Language and Literature First Portfolio Reflection

IB Language and Literature have been already quite different from any English class before since we are not reading or writing an essay but rather analysing advertisements and artwork to analyse the representation and identity that is portrayed and represented in it.

In this unit, we have mainly talked about the representation of women and how the identity roles of both men and women have changed or even stayed the same but used in a different way since in adverts since the 1950s. Although we have looked a bit into adverts ad analysing them, we haven’t gone in-depth with them. These adverts have either objectified women in a sexual way or depicted roles of women as inferior to men or even misogynised. These text during the 1950s were more sexist then they are today and even though they weren’t sexualised (although some did contain some flirtatiousness), the advertisers assumed gender roles of women being inferior and however, as time progressed, the adverts became even more sexualised and although some were more feminine, the problem of advertising women in a sexist and objectified way has sometimes gotten worse.

Aside from about that, we talked about how to analyse these adverts concerning representation and identity. We learned how composition such as rule of thirds, mise-en-scene, framing and other such technical terms can be used as a narrative tool and setting up the scene. We talked about orientation and camera shot including camera angle which can shape the meaning of the advert or text. In addition, typography and imagery can either give implicit or explicit meanings in a text that altogether strengthens the message that the advertisers are sending through things like colour and visual representation.

More specifically, we’ve been practising synthesising points and using more varied and sophisticated terminology to create an argument mainly about Eli Rezkallah’s parodies of 1950s adverts that inturn relate to the IB central concepts:

“Representation: Can fiction represent reality? How are characters ‘fair’ representations of people? By studying texts and literary works, we engage in a dialogue about how the world works and how the world could be.”

“Identity: To what extent is a text an expression of a writer’s identity? Do readers like characters who are thinly veiled versions of themselves? Do strong characters challenge readers to be someone different? By analysing texts, we are really analysing who we are and what we want to become.”

Here is a mind-map I created to define and relate all the terminology we’ve been discussing:

Eli Rezkallah is an artist who recreated these advertised and reversed the gender roles, here are some examples:      

In these adverts, we see that through the satirical inversion of gender roles, Eli Rezkallah’s parodies undermines in many cases the male dominance in decision-making (including that of finance) in a heteronormative relationship and professional responsibility and the role of women in the 1950s as domestic workers and as objects that are aesthetically pleasing. He subverts these traditional gender hierarchies but at the same time reveals and criticizes, due to the incongruous feel we get from looking at these adverts, these gender hierarchies still exist in advertising and our society today but have taken a different form and usually a more sexual although empowering form. He also criticizes the nature of the advertising that as being exaggerated to hyper-realism giving us a false perception of the real world making us more inclined to buy their products.

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First portfolio Task 1—English Language & Literature

Text: 

The Schlitz beer advertisement text has been created to target a male audience in the 1950s era through the representation of both the man and woman in the text due to the context of the time this advertisement was published. The purpose, through this representation, is to sell their famous beer to the targeted male audience due to their status in the 1950s as the leaders,and  responsible and dominant figures in the household. On the other hand, the representation of women is portrayed as weak and domestic figures in the household and even sexualised, although reserved, with the intent to appeal to the male audience. The orientation of the text also accentuates the ideal household and adds to the appeal to portray men as powerful figures that are able to comfort women in times of need or even with the help of daily domestic tasks. 

Firstly, the Schlitz beer advertisement text uses the heteronormative relationship, typical in the 1950s, between the man and wife, who are presumably married, to reveal an idealised version of the household as well as revealing the stereotypes and norms of the society in which the text was published to capture the audience. For instance, the man in the advertisement tries to comforts the woman by saying, “don’t worry darling,” which along with the facial expressions and body language of both the man and the woman, reveals the prevailing attitudes of the time. The man has dark hair and wears a clean, black suit that contrasts the colour of his face, thus drawing the eyes to the face where he looks down at the woman in a slightly patronising and superior way through a seemingly friendly attitude. He puts a hand around the woman’s shoulder as if treating her as a helpless woman in need to comfort and help. On the other hand, the woman looks up to him with plead and holds a handkerchief near to her eyes as if she was before crying but now, with the rescue of the man, she can continue cooking and giver her husband, a nice dinner. In addition, the woman is also presented as slightly flirtatious in terms of 1950s norms due to the contrast of the yellow, green and dark background against the red of her lips and the red stripes on her apron. Red may have the connotations of flirtatiousness due to its vibrant colour that signifies passion, which will make more appeal to the male audience as it is intended. In addition, the curves and thinness of the woman in the advert also visually gives cues of sexuality, increasing the appeal for the male audience. All in all, the portrayal of the weak and slight flirtatiousness of the woman against the dominant male will perhaps make men seem more masculine and even heroic in this context that ultimately may induce them to buy the beer.  

Moreover, the clothes divulge into the roles of the household and what was expected of the men and women. The man wears a nice, well-kept suit that possibly suggests that he has worked in an office and has come home to expect dinner. This also suggests that the man is the finance manager of the household and is there to support the woman and himself by bringing in the income. On the other hand, the woman is wearing an apron which suggests domesticism and also that her role is to take care of the household and husband with his needs. Therefore, the text portrays women as being and having the need to depend on a man’s income and help as well as their role as the caretakers. This in the eyes of the modern audience may seem demeaning towards women, while for the audience (male) in the 1950s, this may have seemed typical and expected. The clothes add to the appeal because it reflects and creates a role model for the man looking at the text to feel as if he wants to be like that man and help his wife or a woman he likes.

Furthermore, the text uses the composition and imagery of the orientation including the background and foreground, to create an idealised version of the scenario represented in the text in order to persuade the male audience to buy this beer. For instance, the long-shot camera angle of the text that reveals the relationship between the man and woman as well as the overall setting of the house. The nicely decorated dining set up in the foreground reveals the underlying attitudes of the time as well as the idealised version of the typical (or at the very least, expected) household of the 1950s. The beer mat as ell is the handkerchief is the same red shade as the apron that the woman wears which may indicate some more flirtatiousness and sexual innuendos by using that colour that stands out against the yellow table cloth. The use of the table in the foreground makes it stand out a bit more to make it more noticeable. This allows the meaning behind the table set up to be picked up by more male audience looking at the text. Makes it more visible to the audience which may convince them to buy the beer. With closer inspection, the background shows the actual problem, that the wife is so clumsy and easily unresponsible that she is unable to cook the beer probably and obviously because upset about it. But not to worry because the man has an easy fix to this problem by buying this beer which makes them feel more powerful and helpful even. This text uses a problem and solution advertisement, typical of most 1950s advertisements, in order to sell a product through idealised versions of typical scenarios including the stereotypical portrayal of men and women at the time.

In conclusion, the text uses the relationship between the man and woman, portraying their roles and expectations along with the setting of the text in order to persuade the male audience to buy these beers from Schlitz. The clothes and composition and imagery of the orientation create a stronger appeal to the male audience by reflecting and evoking the prevailing attitudes of the time. This visual language ultimately represents and reflects on the social identities of the two sexes in the context of the 1950s. However, different perspectives from different eras will have different views on these portrayals due to their beliefs, as a modern audience might find this too demeaning towards women while those who lived in the 1950s might find it perfectly normal. This text reveals the underlying attitudes and values of the 1950s that is specifically targeted to the 1950s culture, thus allowing reflecting upon it to create appeal to the audience. 

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Intro to IB Language and Literature

Although I am quite quiet and a bit reserved, one of the things that people really see me as is the fact that I am Swedish. I speak many languages, probably due to the Scandinavian languages being closely related, but I obviously speak English, and I am able to get around with Chinese and Spanish.

I like to read, and I don’t really have a favourite genre. I read everything from non-fiction books about Nordic Architecture to classics from the 19th century to Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. In fact, I am re-reading the Harry Potter series for the fourth time (but really third time because the first time I read skimmed through the first three books).

One interesting yet short book that I read over the summer was a political book called Good Sweden, Bad Sweden. Not everything I read is about Sweden but in this case, it was about Sweden.  Here is the cover of the book:


Image 1

The book is written by Paul Rapacioli from England, who started an online-news company called The Local. It covers local news from different countries around Europe such as Sweden, Denmark, Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain and more. Although this book is about Sweden, it largely focuses more on viral content, how facts can be twisted and how fake or misinterpreted news can create havoc in the context of Sweden. One of the areas in Sweden that the book talked a lot about is Rosengård which is notorious for being a ghetto in Sweden with news about burning cars and lots of crime as well as being an area of predominately immigrants. My great aunt lives near there and Zlatan Ibrahimović is from there. But it is not as dangerous as it seems on the news. I guess it was sort of compulsive to compare what was in the book and what I saw in my own eyes in when I was visiting Sweden for the summer holidays

I guess what this says about me is that I am Swedish and know a lot (probably too much) about Sweden. Although I enjoy reading and learning about Sweden, I enjoy learning and reading about pretty much everything.

 

Works Cited:

Image 1: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Sweden-Bad-Swedish-Post-Truth-ebook/dp/B077SWDX72

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Personal Statement

In the midst of the Midsummer’s day, or midsommarsdag as known in Sweden, and right at the coast of the southernmost point in Sweden stood a cottage so ordinary in Skåne (southern Sweden). Close to it, a juniper and moss-shaded green, and quite an ordinary forest shielded the fierce wind from the Baltic sea that day. However, what lay deep in the forest was a trädkoja, which in Swedish translates to a treehouse, but what was strange about it, wasn’t because it stood out, but rather because it blended right into the birches and ashes. You see, the treehouse was built with natural materials around it, no tools were needed in the construction except a saw, but there was a ladder from an old playground nearby. It gave a new meaning to sustainable architecture. Cousins, siblings, aunts and uncles from all over Skåne came, and either admire or aided the construction. Despite the few days when the logs from the second level fell down on unsuspected visitors or even one time when the whole structure broke down, we managed to build it up again and make it even sturdier. Hence, this expresses one of the fundamental passions that I have which has somewhat woven intertwined with each other is the environment and design.

Furthermore, in terms of academics, I don’t have any huge goals at the moment. I feel like the effort that I am putting in now is sufficient, sometimes even too much. Therefore, my “goal” in the academic side of things is to continue that effort and work that I am doing in academics. Of course, if there is anything that I in the future have trouble with, I will do as I have always done, to work hard onto improve that particular topic. As mentioned before my two passions are the enviornment and the design, or a least so far. Likewise, for service I am going to continue in Grade 10 to do the services that relate to the environment which are Climate Change and Clean Energy (college service), Urban Gardening (college service, East Solar Initiative (service started by a student) and Gili Eco Trust (Global Concern). Moreover, I used to play a great deal of sports, and a range of sports as well. I have been trying to balance academic and activities as well as service but it hasn’t worked out as I wanted to. Although I wish I could compete in a team, I don’t have time for that. This is why I have decided to do Floorball on Wednesdays and Badminton on Saturdays. Thus, for next year, I will do a similar sort of arrangement. In order to look slightly beyond my time in High School, I think it is safe to say, or at least at the moment, that my plan is to enroll in a university that considers environmental sustainability, and study/purse architecture (specialising in sustainable and “green” architecture) or something that relates to the environment. This isn’t the final plan, but I suppose it is good enough for now. The university that I would enrol in would probably be in Sweden, as I am Swedish and because they are free there, or possibly Canada, as I have a Canadian passport (my father’s Canadian)

I am not that type of person who wants to be the best at everything (although it may seem like it to some people, I really wish it weren’t true that I am good (not perfect or best) at a lot of things) or the person who does extra work, doing internships or anything like that. However, maybe I should consider doing some work that relates do what I am passionate about. In addition to that, at times, I feel like I have too many services that I commit to. Furthermore, I am in the High School Symphony Orchestra because I like that type of music and playing the cello (although I really want to try some jazz instruments because that is also something I’m interested in). In fact, I had real trouble deciding whether to do RM (resistant materials) or Music. I want to be that type of person at the High School concerts who is in the background and plays a range of instruments. My goal for music is to play in the orchestra for High School Musical next year and to perhaps try a range or a different instrument, and be more involved in the school concerts.

For me, except for my passion and the importance of environmentalism, I think that one of the most profound belief that I have is that everyone should have some purpose, something that is significant, even it is small, it has to have some impact. Of course, I would hope that one would do something good, but even it is bad, it should be significant. I don’t believe in any higher deity, but I feel like if your alive, you have to do something that is worthwhile. In the back of my mind, I sometimes feel hatred toward obnoxious jerks or if I feel like some person doesn’t care about the environment or other people. That they are selfish or that if they didn’t exist (I am sorry about this, but this is truly how I feel sometimes) nothing would change, or that the world would be a better place. Of course, if all humans didn’t exist, the world would definitely be a significantly better place, but I think you know what I mean. Thankfully, I don’t lash out or do something mean to them, but this is a problem but also a deep belief that I have.

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Is There a Secret to Writing a Perfect Story?

Oscar Landgren                                                                 2018-03-09

               Mukul Deva                                        Marc Nair

 

Here you are, sitting down in a somewhat comfy chair surfing the web in order to acquire the quintessential writing method that you will apply to your very new and first novel. However, you seem to have trouble finding the optimal method for your upcoming novel because there are so many to choose from. What do you do?

In my opinion, there is no optimal or exemplary method that will work for any piece of story writing whether that is a mystery or narrative poem. During Writer’s Fortnight 2018 hosted by UWCSEA East, students, including myself, listened to several presentations about people’s stories. In these sessions, I was able to attend to two writers who both had different approaches to writing. While it may be true that their genres are totally different as one writes thrillers and mysteries, and the other poems, there is still going to be different methods of writing; even though it is the same style or genre. However, it raises the question: “which method do I choose?”

Firstly, we listened to novelist and motivational speaker, Mukul Deva. During his presentation, he talked about his method of writing a story, specifically a mystery. He showed us this slide:

When Mukul Deva talks the ‘science’ of writing, he means “WHAT we are going to do” and ‘art’ in terms of “HOW we’re going to do it“. We were asked to create a murder mystery novel and we used this method to write that story. Firstly, we should underline the story outline which are the plot, setting, characters and incidents/events that take place. He believes that there should be no more than 5 POVs (point of view characters) in any novel, to make it easy. In a murder mystery novel, there should be around 4 characters where there are 3 witnesses/suspects, including the murderer, and a detective/cop. After that, we should accentuate the chapters by breaking it up in our planning. If we were to write our first mystery novel, we should try to aim for approximately 10 chapters. After that, it is all about the research into the story and the eventual validation of it. Finally, there is the writing of the story, the revision and editing, and finally the publication.

On the other hand, Marc Nair has an unusual approach to poetry. Marc Nair talked about how he has an “itchy eye” for themes, issues, messages, and culture which explains his diverse set of poems that cover many forms of art such as photography, dance, sculptures, paintings, etc. He described how a lot of his poems are based on what is happening in the media and how he often criticises issues by examining them at often unique angles. When he’s vocally performing his poems, he brings out and evokes a lot of feelings, emotions as well as elements of drama to captivate his audience about his messages, sometimes involving humour.

Furthermore, Mukul Deva told us that “there are no rules in writing”. Although this is, of course, true to some extent, it is a necessity that there are some obvious rules. Of course, you could write something really weird where the readers find themselves in the book without a plot or grammatically correct sentences, however, most people would agree on some rules. For example, most of the writing should be grammatically correct, except in extreme circumstances in which there is a purpose such as in dialogue; or there is some sort of clear structure or story, so the readers know what’s happening unless it is from any work by Pseudonymous Bosch. However, I assume he means that except for the obvious rules, you can write about anything.

Furthermore, even though his method seems to be a very good, valid and reasonable, this can’t work for all stories. He believed that this method is the best to start with for any new writer. Many authors and writers have different approaches, so saying that this unique method is the best, is definitely erroneous and invalid. Likewise, this method seems very generic as it is very similar to what we do in school when we are asked to plan and write short stories. In addition to that, his motivation to make money, although brutally honest, can be quite controversial as well. In other words, his motivation for money and his method can be controversial to other, making his method quite mundane.

Moreover, there are loads of methods to writing stories that can be found in published books or articles or teaching classrooms and even the deepest regions of the internet. According to an article published by the British Council, process writing is one approach. In order to follow this, one must first pre-write or brainstorm and then focus on the ideas so that you can start writing. Finally, one must structure the writing, evaluate and edit. However, during this method, one must also gain feedback from peers, share ideas with others, questioned and debate on ideas. In other words, this is more of a social approach to writing rather than an individual.

Likewise, it doesn’t just have to be writing novels, it could be poetry, persuasive piece, descriptive essay or business writing. Furthermore, a very popular writing method is called the ‘Snowflake Method’ which was designed by Randy Ingermanson. In one article on his page, he said that “there are a thousand different people out there who can tell you how to write a novel [and] there are a thousand different methods.”(Randy Ingermanson, 2018). He believes that good fiction needs to be designed so you need to “start small, then build stuff up until it looks like a story.”

Therefore, imagine that you have a triangle which is basically your writing. As you build up your-story with more characters, writing, deeper meanings, themes etc, the triangle will get increasingly more complicated with more patterns, sides, and angles until it eventually becomes this a snowflake like this:

In other words, it is a sort of analogy that Ingermanson has used to describe his method where you keep on building it up.

In conclusion, there is no ideal method that will work across all works of literature. Marc Nair, who is a Singapore poet, has always felt that culture, themes, issues, and messages are significant as well as important in our daily lives. However, in order to truly understand the meaning of these issues, he scrutinizes and examines it at an unusual angle. Mukul Deva is assertive that his ‘art’ and ‘science’ method is a good approach, to begin with, especially when new to writing a novel. Academic and educational establishments such as the British Council believe more in writing as groups, especially for younger people while Randy Ingermanson believes in building up a story one by one. Despite this, a great quote from Randy Ingermanson from the same blog has explicitly said that “the best one for you is the one that works for you”. On one hand, this quote sums up the reality that there are so many methods and approaches out there so the best one is the one you believe works best for you.

On the other hand, it fails to bring up an important question and that is where that ideal method for you can be found? It seems obvious that you try several outs and pick the best, but it takes a lot of time. Due to the fact that both Mukul Deva’s method and the Snowflake method could both be used to write a mystery novel, it makes it extremely difficult for choose either one for the mystery. Perhaps the only way to find this specific modus operandi is to actually write the way you write without looking up any method. I am confident that many of the best writers from Mark Twain to J.K. Rowling to Chinua Achebe, did not search for a method and rather just went with it that would eventually develop into their own style. In other words, if you really want to be a prominent writer, you have to develop it in your own way and despite the hard effort, you must stay resilient to effectively construct it. To conclude, my question to you is: does a method like Mukul Deva inhibit creativity? In my opinion, it does inhibit some form of creativty, but it is limtided. 

Bibliography:

  1. “About Me.” Marc Nair. N. p., 2012. Web. 6 Feb. 2018.
  2. “Inspirational Motivational Speakers Singapore | Leadership Development Speaker Singapore .” Mukuldeva.com. N. p., 2018. Web. 6 Feb. 2018.
  3. “Approaches To Process Writing.” TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC. N. p., 2011. Web. 6 Feb. 2018.
  4. “Effective Writing For The Workplace.” Writers Write. N. p., 2018. Web. 6 Feb. 2018.
  5. “Research Guides: Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Academic Writing Style.” Libguides.usc.edu. N. p., 2018. Web. 6 Feb. 2018.
  6. Herz, Henry, and About Herz. “5 Powerful Writing Techniques That Bring Stories To Life.” The Write Life. N. p., 2014. Web. 6 Feb. 2018.
  7. Ingermanson. Articles, Overview et al. “How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method.” Advanced Fiction Writing. N. p., 2018. Web. 6 Feb. 2018.
  8. “7 Techniques From Creative Writing You Can Use To Improve Your Essays.” Oxford Royale Academy. N. p., 2014. Web. 6 Feb. 2018.
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Steve Dawson and his Inspiring Techniques:

Writer’s Fortnight Session 1:

In our first session of Writer’s Fortnight (Tuesday the 16th of January), we listened to Steve Dawson’s presentation about interviewing techniques. Steve Dawson used to be a Chartered Tax Accountant but has pursued his career mainly as a sports journalist. He used to work at the Straits Times as well as ESPN but is now working for Fox Sports. 

I made a few questions before the presentation:

In addition to that, I made lots of notes in the tiny booklet:

In the presentation, he talked about the 5 (although also a 6th one as well that was not planned) techniques to interviewing:

  1. “Challenge your Interviewee”

    In this segment of the interview, he talked about how we need to “[get] the best stories” as well as answers from our interviewee. Therefore, we need to ask open-end questions that do not result in a yes or no answer. He said that we needed let the interviewee guide the interview, not the interviewer. As reporters compete with each other, there aren’t many chances for a journalist to ask questions. In order to get the best answers, journalists need to ask questions that will allow the interviewee to answer openly and they need to ask questions that will capture a particular angle of the story that is unique to others. Everyone will be publishing or talking about the same story so asking a question that gives the readers a different angle is crucial to get better at interviewing and being a journalist. However, I already heard and used this tip from previous experiences.
  2. “Set the Answer Free”

    Since asking good questions is one of the most fundamental skills of journalism, knowing how to phrase a question is crucial. He said that we should not “restrict the content of your questions”. For instance, if one would say: what are your concerns about losing a job? The question restricts the answer to only what the concerns are therefore this question would better phrased if it was instead: how do you feel about losing a job? This is more open. He also said that using the phrase: how do you feel about ‘something’, will almost always result in “tremendous answers”. It doesn’t matter if you use good articulation in your language and sophisticated vocabulary in your question, because it is not all about to impress people around you but rather to capture a good story. In other words, we do not want to define the story and we can’t set unnecessary parameters; expertise doesn’t matter here. I initially thought that I should sound like an expert or professional but I learned that doing so, may not be the best thing in every scenario.
  3. “Don’t Interrupt”

    When engaging in an interview, we have to listen. We cannot push our knowledge or opinions to the story itself because then it would be our story and not the interviewee’s story. In addition to that, we should not be overly critical of what they’re saying. Thus, avoiding to interrupt when someone is speaking is necessary and therefore we also show our respect to the interviewee.  However, I sometimes find it hard to listen in an engaging way and listening is probably one of the hardest skills to “master”. Although it may be tempting to interrupt, I think I should try to listen in a way that I am engaged.
  4. “Be a Single Shooter”

    When asking questions, we can’t ask two questions at the same time. For example: what did people scream at you, how did you feel when you won the race? Even though this question is an open question and would give a genuine good answer, we asked two questions at the same time. He said that more often or not, the interviewee we probably only answer the second question.  I have noticed that I sometimes do ask several questions at once. I have learned that I should really think about a good question that will really bring the story forward before asking it. Because I probably only get one chance to ask a question, I have to make it a good one.
  5. “Listen”

    Finally, this is perhaps the most important and significant technique and tips for interviewing. Listening is probably one of the hardest skills to be good at but it is absolutely crucial to journalism. Even if you have some kind of voice recorder with you, so your job as being a journalist is easier, listening carefully is necessary as you may have forgotten to ask a really good question, for example. In other words, “you have to listen in order to ask the follow-up questions”. Instead of asking the questions that you already prepared, we should listen so we can ask a question that would only apply to the interview by using the information we heard. We want to let the person dictate the story so we do not need to ask our prepared questions. When listening and asking the right questions we can “build a framework” in the story that will be really detailed and interesting. Furthermore, we cannot be a fanboy/girl when being a journalist and should instead act professionally. I have learnt a lot from these techniques and tips so I hope I will remember and apply them for the future.

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