IAM SHAKESPEARE, _Hamlet_, Act III, Scene 2.

CHAPTER XIII

INTERVIEWS

"To be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune; but to write
and read comes by nature."--SHAKESPEARE.

I. Introduction

For most of his material a reporter must rely upon his success as an
interviewer. This, it has already been pointed out, requires courage,
tact, persistence, and some knowledge of human nature. Its performance
is beyond the powers of most boys and girls, and besides, if they tried
it, they would annoy people. As a substitute, the exercises that follow
have been devised. They involve interviews, it is true, but only with
the members of a pupil's own family.

There are two ways to manage an interview. One may go directly at it,
which is sometimes the best method, or one may approach the subject
cautiously. It depends on the disposition of the person interviewed. The
direct method will probably work well with mother, who is never out of
sorts, but as to father--well, the case may be different; while sisters,
brothers, cousins, aunts, and uncles present endless problems and
opportunities.

Before interviewing anybody, it is a good plan always to write down the
questions you wish to ask. But do not read them to the person
interviewed. Get them so thoroughly into your own mind that you will
forget none of them. As an exercise, make a set of questions such as you
would need to ask in order to learn the facts contained in the
following paragraphs from Franklin's _Autobiography_.

II. Assignments

Write the opening paragraphs of your own biography, covering the topics
suggested below:

Week 1--My Ancestors.
Week 2--My Uncles.
Week 3--My Parents.

III. Model I

MY ANCESTORS

One of my uncles furnished me with several particulars relating
to our ancestors. From his notes I learned that the family had
lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamptonshire, for three
hundred years, and how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the
time when the name of Franklin, that before was the name of an
order of people, was assumed by them as a surname when others
took surnames all over the kingdom), on a freehold of about
thirty acres, aided by the smith's business, which had continued
in the family until his time, the eldest son being always bred
to that business, a custom which he and my father followed as to
their eldest sons. When I searched the record