Listening is the secret to great writing. The better you listen the easier time you will have with our first assignment this year. Interviewing each other will also help us get to know each other's back stories.
SCI: The whole of our class is more than the sum of all our students.
Assignment
Interview a fellow classmate about their lives. Ask good questions and listen well. Take good notes while they answer and turn your notes into a 300 word biography. The biography must be informative, and kind. Spelling and grammar count.
You will need to turn in the following:
Write at least 10 good questions to use in your interview. Good interview questions are open ended and encourage the person to go into detail. Bad questions can be answered in one or two words.
Good interview question: "Tell me about your favorite summer vacation"
Bad interview question: "What is your favorite color?"
Write quick notes as your interviewee answers.
Don't feel the need to write exactly what you hear. Get the main points down and any important details like locations and dates.
Don't worry about getting through all of your questions but make sure you ask the most important ones.
Be ready with followup questions if you get a short answer. For example, "What about that vacation went so well?"
Organize your notes in the order you wish to write about them.
If you got a lot of information be ready to throw some stuff out. If you didn't get a lot of information you might need to go back and ask a few more questions on your own time.