A little help: I'm guest lecturing

Jim Tom Pinch · Sep 15, 2009

I'm filling in at a friend's college sports writing class. My topic is interviewing.

I have lots of ideas, but there I was hoping you guys might offer some suggestions.

Thanks

Elliotte Friedman · Sep 15, 2009

I do this quite a bit...best advice I can give you -- go with plenty of examples.

Doesn't matter if it's your interviews or other people's interviews. Should be some good, some that went bad. Students love hearing about interviews with athletes/coaches/executives that they've heard of.

fishwrapper · Sep 15, 2009

Bolo ties are always a big hit.

sportsguydave · Sep 15, 2009

Elliotte Friedman said:
I do this quite a bit...best advice I can give you -- go with plenty of examples.

Doesn't matter if it's your interviews or other people's interviews. Should be some good, some that went bad. Students love hearing about interviews with athletes/coaches/executives that they've heard of.

I'd agree. Anecdotes are always good. If you have a funny story about an interview that maybe didn't go as well, that can kind of loosen up the class. It'll make you seem human and show the class that they aren't expected to be perfect every time.

My fave story is from 1995 when I was covering the beginning of the ill-fated Howard Schnellenberger era at Oklahoma. I got stuck on the press elevator after the game and was late to the press conference. I asked a question I was sure he hadn't been asked yet... Schellenberger frowned, put tobacco in his pipe, lit it, and growled, "Son, I just answered that question."

Fredrick · Sep 15, 2009

Tell the class to not be lazy in interviewing and never ask the "Talk about" non question.
"Talk about the game ... talk about your childhood ... talk about whatever."
Tell them to write a few notes on a sheet of paper of questions they must get answered. It's easy to forget so they should have some crib notes to check at the end to make sure they touched all topics that needed to be addressed.