How to Write a Q&A Style Article Readers Will Love
As journalists our goal is to provide accurate and valuable information, and there’s no better way of getting a story ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’ than through the Q&A style article. Not only does a Q&A present the interviewee’s viewpoint almost verbatim, it’s also one of the easiest article types for freelancers to pitch and write.
So, what exactly is a Q&A article and why are they popular with both readers and writers?
The Q&A (question and answer) article is an edited transcription of an interview with a simple narrative introduction. It involves interviewing only one source, making the process much smoother and less time consuming than having to coordinate multiple interviews. Since the focus is on the interviewee, readers can enjoy their story unencumbered by news angles, interjections, or any inference that can sometimes sneak into reported articles and features.
The interviewee can be a person with amazing accomplishments or a fascinating career. They can be a famous author, actor, director, or artist. While they don’t necessarily have to be well known, they must be compelling.
A great Q&A requires thorough research. Your subject must have something interesting to say and the ability to say it well. Your finished piece should be simple, well structured, straightforward, and enjoyable to read.
Here are seven tips on how to write a Q&A readers will love.
1. Choose an interesting subject/interviewee
Ask yourself who you would like to read about in a magazine or online publication? For the best results you need to find someone with an interesting story and/or unique viewpoint. You also need to ensure that they’re good talkers, and the only way to do this is to find and read any previous articles or simply call them and chat. After a few minutes on the phone, you’ll know if they’re talkative enough to warrant a full Q&A.
2. Do your research
To extract interesting answers an experienced interviewer knows what questions to ask and how to ask them. This is a skill we must all develop and hone as journalists in general, but for a Q&A it’s imperative.
Thoroughly research your interviewee so you can ask questions that generate compelling answers. If you only get monosyllabic responses, then you have no article. You must delve into your subject’s life and background and find any interesting facts and scenarios. Make sure you ask some basic questions first, but don’t repeat obvious questions that have already been answered in other interviews (if you find any). Try thinking far outside the box and come up with fresh ideas. Put yourself in their position—what would you like to talk about if someone asked you for an interview?
Have a list of questions ready at the interview, but you don’t necessarily have to use them all. This is just your guide, and it can help to get the conversation flowing. Be sure to ask follow-up questions as they arise. This is often when you discover the gems, the scoops. Maybe you’ll stumble upon something they haven’t spoken about before. Your resulting piece will then stand out from any other articles that may be circulating.
3. Record the interview
How will you conduct the interview? You can either interview the person over the phone, in person, or through a video meeting app like Zoom. Just remember to record the interview as you won’t have time to scribble enough notes and probably won’t have the opportunity for a re-do.
Make sure your recording device is working beforehand by calling a friend or partner. There are many apps available. I’ve used Tape a Call, my MacBook voice memos, and a handheld digital voice recorder. When conducting an in-person interview try to meet in a quiet space with little to no background noise.
There’s nothing worse than straining to decipher what someone is saying when your main goal is accuracy and authenticity. It also takes longer and ends up being frustrating. This is supposed to be straightforward and fun, remember!
4. Be conversational
This is a conversation not an interrogation, so make sure to keep it light. This isn’t hard news or an investigative piece. For this type of article, you want your interviewee to relax, open up, and feel comfortable talking about themselves. Your research should have prepped you for the type of questions to ask, but easygoing conversations can go anywhere. Have fun with this.
You’re chatting with a unique individual. These moments are precious, and we’re extremely privileged as writers and journalists to have the opportunity to talk with some of the most interesting people in the world. And it’s perfectly fine to ask your interviewee at the end if she wants to add something or if you’ve missed anything important that they’d like to mention.
5. Transcribe your own interviews to get the best results
This is a personal choice. Transcribing long interviews is nobody’s idea of a fun time, and many writers are comfortable using a transcription service. But I prefer transcribing my own interviews as it’s an opportunity to hear the conversation from a different perspective and I may spot something interesting and pertinent that would be lost or missed if I used a service. While tapping away I automatically edit (by putting big stars and exclamation points by the stuff I like) so by the end of the process, I have the best answers figured out and the piece is almost formatted.
I would also suggest listening to the interview again after transcribing, maybe while doing household chores like folding clothes or ironing (does anyone even iron anymore?). This way you’re hearing the conversation from yet another perspective—the listener. Imagine if this was an NPR interview, what would you include or omit? Have a notebook and pen ready, just be sure to carefully place the iron down first. You might capture some aha moments while starching that crisp white button-down shirt.
6. Edit for length, flow, and clarity
By now, you should be quite the authority on the interviewee and their story and therefore it will be easier to pick and choose which questions and answers to use in your piece.
Edit and structure them in a way that flows. They don’t have to be in sequential or chronological order, it just needs to read well and make sense. Trim down your questions (it’s not about you) and edit out all the excess fluff in the answers, including all the inevitable ums and ahs.
7. Write a catchy introduction
Your introduction or lead should be short, to the point and compelling enough to draw the reader in so they’ll read the whole article. Since you know your subject very well by now, you can easily find some unique angle with which to propel your piece.
For example, here’s the lead of a Q&A I wrote for Videoscope Magazine:
He’s a 6’ 4” South Carolina native who went from playing football for the Clemson Tigers to becoming a famous actor in China. Fluent in Mandarin, he’s the first non-Asian to study at the Beijing Film Academy. He landed a starring role in the $100 million fantasy adventure film Asura, billed as the next Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And his vision is to bridge the gap between the American and Chinese film industries. Now based in L.A., he’s tackling Hollywood. Meet Matthew Knowles, one of the most interesting men in the business.
The trick is to say a lot in a short paragraph. My subject here, Matthew Knowles was a perfect candidate for a Q&A since he has such a unique and fascinating story.
Just one more…
Article Format
Questions and answers need to be clearly differentiated and the format and length of the piece is usually determined by the publication you’re writing for. It can range from using the names of the interviewer and the interviewee (starting off with their full names and then using just initials) to using the letters Q and A in boldface. Or you can boldface the questions and use italics for the answers.
If writing on your own platform, maybe on a site like Medium or your own blog, you can choose from any of these different formats. Just make sure you keep it consistent throughout the piece.
Good luck with your projects and we look forward to reading some great Q&As soon.