Interview
Reveal perspectives through questions and answers through audience-aware writing.
Write for the situation
Audience
readers interested in the interviewee’s experience
Purpose
Reveal perspectives through questions and answers
Register and tone
Questions fit the interviewer; answers fit the speaker and publication
Avoid
A random questionnaire with one-word answers
Conventions that help the reader
Brief context; identified speakers; purposeful questions; developed answers; a meaningful final question or close. These are adaptable guidance: task, audience and purpose decide the choices.
A flexible route through the text
- 1Introduce the person and topic
- 2Ask about experience
- 3Probe reasons and tensions
- 4Close with advice or outlook
Language to develop
Choose precise verbs and examples. Connect reasons and consequences, qualify claims when necessary and vary sentence forms without forcing unfamiliar language.
Planning question
What does the follow-up question reveal that the first answer did not?
Model extract · Social organization
This original teaching extract shows selected choices. It is shorter than a complete Paper 1 response and is not an IB-marked exemplar.
Meeting the students behind the mentoring plan
Interviewer: Why did you suggest this programme?
Maya: I remembered knowing the building but not understanding its routines. A student guide could explain those small things.
Interviewer: Could a mentor make a newcomer feel dependent?
Maya: Yes, if the mentor makes every decision. We want pairs to choose one activity together, then help the newcomer make independent choices.
Interviewer: What should a volunteer do when a problem is too serious to handle?
Maya: Listen respectfully and contact the designated adult. A mentor is a peer, not a counsellor.
Read as a writer
Find evidence of the intended reader, purpose and register. Identify a convention that makes the text usable.
Explore the content
Underline an example, reason or practical detail. Explain what it contributes, then develop the next paragraph yourself.
Connect it to each core theme
Identities
You are interviewing a student who helped organise a multilingual welcome project.
Write an interview for readers interested in the interviewee’s experience. Introduce the interviewee, ask about experience and motivation, and develop a follow-up question about a challenge.
Theme connection: how language choices shape belonging.
Planning focus: What does the follow-up question reveal that the first answer did not?
Plan this taskExperiences
You are interviewing a student who helped organise a student exchange programme.
Write an interview for readers interested in the interviewee’s experience. Introduce the interviewee, ask about experience and motivation, and develop a follow-up question about a challenge.
Theme connection: what students gain from an unfamiliar experience.
Planning focus: What does the follow-up question reveal that the first answer did not?
Plan this taskHuman ingenuity
You are interviewing a student who helped organise an AI-supported language-learning app.
Write an interview for readers interested in the interviewee’s experience. Introduce the interviewee, ask about experience and motivation, and develop a follow-up question about a challenge.
Theme connection: how technology helps learners and where its limits lie.
Planning focus: What does the follow-up question reveal that the first answer did not?
Plan this taskSocial organization
You are interviewing a student who helped organise a school peer-mentoring programme.
Write an interview for readers interested in the interviewee’s experience. Introduce the interviewee, ask about experience and motivation, and develop a follow-up question about a challenge.
Theme connection: how a community can support newcomers.
Planning focus: What does the follow-up question reveal that the first answer did not?
Plan this taskSharing the planet
You are interviewing a student who helped organise a student-led food-waste project.
Write an interview for readers interested in the interviewee’s experience. Introduce the interviewee, ask about experience and motivation, and develop a follow-up question about a challenge.
Theme connection: how individuals and institutions can reduce waste.
Planning focus: What does the follow-up question reveal that the first answer did not?
Plan this taskTeach, practise and refine
- Read a real example of this text type and identify its readership and purpose.
- Annotate the model extract, then discuss how a different audience would change its wording.
- Select a theme task. Plan all required actions before writing; develop examples rather than listing them.
- Draft independently, review audience and task coverage, then revise one paragraph.
Teacher language
What does the follow-up question reveal that the first answer did not?
Support without fixing every sentence
Offer an audience–purpose planning grid, a few useful connectors and oral rehearsal. Then remove the paragraph openings and ask for independent wording. Extend by developing an alternative viewpoint or a justified qualification.
Self-check
- Have I addressed every instruction?
- Do the reader, purpose, tone and conventions match?
- Does each main idea have a developed example or explanation?
- Have I checked verb forms, reference, spelling and punctuation?