How to Write an Interview for Junior Cycle English

Junior Cycle English · Functional Writing

An interview looks easy until you start writing one. Two people, taking turns, sounding like two different people. Get the setup right, ask the right questions, and let your guest do the talking. Here is how.

When It Comes Up

Section B is the functional writing section. It tests whether you can write for a real-world purpose: a blog post, a letter, a speech, a set of instructions. An interview is one of the forms that can appear. You will be asked to write it as a transcript, the way it would look if it were printed in a magazine or read off a screen.

The person being interviewed could be anyone. A celebrity. An expert on a topic. A character from a text you have studied. Whoever it is, the task is the same: capture a real conversation on the page. You write both parts, the questions and the answers, and you make them sound like two separate voices.

Setting It Up

Do not jump straight into the first question. Give the reader a short introduction first. One or two sentences is plenty. Say who is being interviewed, where the interview is happening, and why it is worth reading.

Something like this: “We sat down with marathon runner Aoife Behan in a quiet cafe in Galway, three days before she flies out to compete in her first international race.” That single line does a lot. It names the guest, sets the scene, and tells us what is at stake. Now the reader knows who they are about to meet.

The Transcript Format

A transcript is laid out so you can always tell who is speaking. The simplest way is to label each turn. Use initials or a short name for the interviewer, and the guest’s name for the answers.

• Give the interviewer a label and the guest a label. Initials work well for the interviewer, for example JM.
• Alternate: a question, then an answer, then the next question. One voice at a time.
• Put each new speaker on a new line. White space makes the two voices easy to tell apart.
• Keep the labels consistent the whole way through. Do not switch from initials to a full name halfway down.

That is all the format needs. Clear labels, alternating turns, plenty of space. The marker should be able to follow the conversation at a glance.

Asking Questions That Open Up

The quality of your interview lives in the questions. A weak question gets a one-word answer. A strong question gets a story.

Avoid anything that can be answered with yes or no. “Did you enjoy the race?” gets you “Yes.” Dead end. Instead, ask the questions that force a fuller answer. Start with “how”, “why”, or “what was it like”. “What was going through your head at the start line?” That cannot be answered in one word. It opens a door, and the guest walks through it.

A good interview is mostly the guest talking. Your questions should be short. Their answers should be long. If you find yourself writing long questions and short answers, you have it backwards.

Two Distinct Voices

This is the part that separates a strong interview from a flat one. The two speakers must not sound the same.

The interviewer is curious and brief. They ask, they listen, they nudge. They do not lecture or show off. The guest is the one with personality: the detail, the opinions, the memories, the turns of phrase. Give the guest a way of speaking that fits who they are. A footballer talks differently from a poet. A nervous teenager talks differently from a retired sea captain.

Read your two voices back to yourself. If you covered the labels, could you still tell who is speaking? If yes, you have done it.

A Worked Exchange

Here is one short exchange to show the pieces working together. The interviewer is brief. The question is open. The guest has a clear voice and gives real detail.

JM: What was going through your head as you stepped up to the line?
Aoife: Honestly, my legs felt like jelly. I kept thinking about my dad, who used to drive me to training at six in the morning and never once complained. I told myself I would run the first kilometre for him, and the rest for me. After that the nerves just went. Invented example for illustration

Notice how little the interviewer says, and how much the guest gives back. The open question, “what was going through your head”, could not be answered with one word. It pulled out a memory, a feeling, and a small story. That is the whole skill in one exchange.

The Mistakes That Cost Marks

• Both speakers sound the same. If you cover the labels and cannot tell who is talking, your voices have collapsed into one. Give the guest the personality.
• Closed questions. “Do you like it? Was it hard? Are you happy?” These get one-word answers and kill the conversation. Open every door with how, why, or what.
• No setup. Jumping straight into the first question leaves the reader lost. Two lines of introduction fix it.
• The interviewer talks more than the guest. The reader came to hear the guest, not you. Keep your questions short and let them run.

Using This in the Exam

You will not have long to plan, so plan fast. Before you write a word, decide three things: who your guest is, what one interesting thing about them you want to draw out, and four or five open questions that build towards it. Then write.

How to use it: Spend two minutes deciding your guest and jotting five open questions, each starting with how, why, or what. Write a two-line setup, then alternate short question, long answer. When you finish, cover the labels and read it back. If you can still tell the two voices apart, you are done.

In Short

An interview is a conversation you control. Set the scene in a line or two. Label your speakers clearly and alternate the turns. Ask open questions that start with how, why, or what, and keep them short. Then step back and let your guest talk. Two voices, never one. Get that right and the marks follow.