How to Interview a Place

Senior Projects 2013-14

The Visitation

• Another requirement of the Senior Project will be to visit a place related to your topic. • This could be a visit to an artist’s studio if you were doing a project on

sculpting; to a city planning commission if your project were to investigate solutions for traffic problems; or to a hospital if you were interested in shadowing a doctor for a paper on health care. • In other words, this visit should help in answering the question for

your paper.

The Visitation

• The description and reflection on your visit should be woven into the body of your paper in a flowing style that also shows your skill in using descriptive writing. • Where you include this information will vary from paper to paper

depending on your topic and focus while writing it.

Travel Writing

• As a travel writer, you’re giving the reader the opportunity to experience a particular place at a particular time – and to understand what makes that place so interesting, important or unusual.

The café at Prague’s Hotel Imperial – where, for a price, you can pitch doughnuts at your fellow guests.

Everything Starts With Research

• Guidebooks• News articles• Web sites• Flyers and pamphlets

“And we should be just in time for the start of the Olympics in… whoops. 2006. My bad.”

Example: What Goes Into Planning a Park?

City of Clayton Parks and Recreation Department:http://ci.clayton.ca.us/

Review of The Grove (on GreatKidsParks.com):http://www.great-kids-parks.com/the-grove-clayton-ca.html

Information on Clayton Little League facilities;http://www.cvll.org/page/show/248489-fields

Going to the Source

• Look for local convention and visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce, tourism officials and others who can provide you with contacts and information – and maybe even a tour guide.

Example: How to Be a Soccer Coach

It’s all about the connections!

Developing Questions

• Use your research to develop questions for the place you plan to visit – just as you would prepare questions in advance for an interview.

Q: Is this place haunted?Q: Are you sure? Because it looks haunted to me…

Take Notes and Photos

• What does this place look like? Sound like? Smell like?

• Are there decorations on the walls? Is music playing?

• How would you describe the mood?

• Is it what you expected?

The room cracked with the clack of billiard balls. There were about a dozen spectators in the room, most of them young men who were watching Leo Durocher shoot against two other aspiring hustlers who were not very good. This private drinking club has among its membership many actors, directors, writers, models, nearly all of them a good deal younger than Sinatra or Durocher and much more casual in the way they dress for the evening…It was obvious from the way Sinatra looked at these people in the poolroom that they were not his style, but he leaned back against a high stool that was against the wall, holding his drink in his right hand, and said nothing, just watched Durocher slam the billiard balls back and forth. The younger men in the room, accustomed to seeing Sinatra at this club, treated him without deference, although they said nothing offensive. They were a cool young group, very California-cool and casual, and one of the coolest seemed to be a little guy, very quick of movement, who had a sharp profile, pale blue eyes, blondish hair, and squared eyeglasses. He wore a pair of brown corduroy slacks, a green shaggy-dog Shetland sweater, a tan suede jacket, and Game Warden boots, for which he had recently paid $60.

--Gay Talese, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold”

Gather Information

• Business cards• Pamphlets• Flyers• Menus

Not only do they provide great information, but they serve to jog your memories.

After the Visitation: Organize

• Place all of the information you’ve gathered together into an outline.• What did you know? What did you want to know?• What did you expect to find out?• What did you find out?• What surprised you? What did you find interesting?• What stories or anecdotes can you use to illustrate these points?

Getting Feedback

• Review the photos and notes you’ve taken during the trip with family and friends. • Often the questions they

ask about the trip will help you figure out what would be the most interesting aspects of the destination to your readers.

“And this is where I discovered the secret passage behind the bookcase!”

Getting Feedback

• I have a pair of friends who are fellow freelancers and travel writers, and I usually e-mail drafts of my articles to them. They're usually very helpful in picking out errors and offering suggestions for making the article tighter and more interesting.