Hello!

I am in need of some assistance, please! I have to write a personal response essay based on an interview I conducted, and it needs to be between 1,000 to 1,500 words. I was actually here just the other day, asking for help on how to lay out the interview bit! Anyhoo!

The questions I have to answer/respond to are:
-Did you follow instructions?
-Is the Interview thorough?
-Are all possible questions answered?
-Did you record the answers diligently and in detail?
-Is your response to the Interview thoughtful?
-Do I (The Professor) have an understanding of what is going on inside your head when I read it?

So, I know that you are probably thinking that with all of these questions, I could write 1,000 words easy, but I just have absolutely no idea how to write an essay like this. I have written hundreds of essays and papers, but a Personal Response Essay isn't one that I have done before. This isn't a writing course or an English course, for that matter, but it is a course on the language acquisition of children. He isn't very strict on it being super professional, just as long as the grammar is sound.

Now, I have googled and read a bunch of different links and such, but everything I have come across doesn't seem to fit with what I believe he is looking for.

If anybody has any idea on how to help me, I would greatly appreciate it!!

Thank you in advance!!
~Emily

2 answers

It seems to me that the prof. wants you to evaluate your conduct of the interview. Did you ask all the pertinent questions, or think of some later that you wish you had asked? Did you elicit clear answers to your questions, or let it slide when an answer was incomplete or evaded? Are your notes on the interview detailed enough that you can write about it accurately, or were you sloppy and, later, wish you could remember just what was said? And, what is the "take-away" from the interview, or is there any?

Some people can go read a profound piece of literature, see a play like KING LEAR, and just be amused or get a vicarious thrill, but are left with nothing at all to think about, no "take-away", no thought about it at all.

I THINK that's what your prof. wants you to do in your essay.
I agree with Reed. The point of this lesson is to plan your interview, get the material you need. Planning requires thought and execution of the plan.

Emily, when a guy comes to you and wants you to marry him, you need to have the right set of questions, get clear answers that you can verify, with detail enough that you can describe what happened to your marriage counselor (your sister) so that she can get a clear picture of what went on inside your head. That is what the Prof is asking, it seems to me. He doesn't want to evaluate you as a bubble head, full of imagination and hopeful thinking.

good luck.