A major part of a class yearbook is the interview section. It is here where the yearbook committee selects various students, perhaps the valedictorian or class president, and asks them a series of questions that will then be published in the yearbook.
As a yearbook committee member, this is a very important job as it is their responsibility not only to ask the right questions, but also to transcribe the interview properly. This is so they don’t have the potential of being misinterpreted.
Before you conduct the interview, here are a few tips on how make it not only go smooth and seamless:
- Be upbeat and encouraging. Not every person you interview will have a slew of stuff to talk about. Keep an open mind when going into the interview and try to get the information to come out of the interviewee naturally without having to pull it from them. If you can’t get the right information out of them at first, it is okay to move on to another topic and perhaps even go back to it later.
- Be prepared. As the interviewer, come prepared with a list of questions ahead of time. You can get inspiration from a number of sources including previous yearbooks. Concentrate on core topics that you can than expand upon.
- Ask narrower questions at first. These questions require yes and no answers and just brief responses. This will help break the ice and hopefully lead to more expanded, detailed answers as you move forward with the interview.
- Don’t be afraid of asking “What If…” questions. This will hopefully encourage the interviewee to utilize some thought and uniqueness when giving their answers as well as make the responses interesting.
School yearbook interviews are a great way to include first-hand experiences of students during their graduating year. Their answers will for sure be remembered for generations to come.