Analyzing published interviews

Integrated Skills III

Interview with Barack Obama

Read the title and the introductory text of the interviewWhat is the objective of the interview?What is the tone of the introductory text? Why?

Read the interview questions. What do they focus on?Read some of the answers. Are they exactly what the interviewee said? Why/ Why not? Is there a closing for the interview? Read some of the interview answers and analyze the language used.

Linguistic elements – which verb tenses were used? Why? What about the temporal organizers and personal pronouns?

Discourse elements – Are there narrative or dialogue sequences? What about explanations? Can you identify anaphoric chains?

Have you read interviews that are presented differently (“prose like text”)? Which kind do you prefer?

Another example of written interview

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/president-obama-exclusive-interview-term-badly/story?id=15451734#.T3rBw_BWpuo

Links to the final interview texts produced by 2010/2 students

http://www.integratedskillslll.blogspot.com/  http://livingabroad01.blogspot.com/http://skilfulinterviews.blogspot.com/

Your texts can be even better!It can be a multimedia text.Use your creativity.Remember to carefully edit it. (Write several drafts before you turn it in or send your teacher the blog link)

Aspects of oral language that are eliminated when the interview is

written

Fillers and empty words: ‘uh’, ‘you know’, ‘oh’, ‘like’, ‘I mean’, ‘stuff’,Excessive use of coordination: and, but

PausesAspects of connected speech: assimilation, intrusion, linking, elisionAbreviations (internet use): “cause”, “u”, ‘wanna’, ‘gonna’, ‘luv ya’,