MEMORANDUM
The idea for my story came from my interest to learn more about a family friend and neighbor who is a famous pilot. When the profile assignment was first introduced I knew I wanted to write about Chambliss, as I have watched and admired his talent for a number of years. I chose to write about him because I believe many fans support his abilities and know of him only through his performances. However, I know Chambliss more on a personal level and have wanted to discuss his career (work ethic, mentality, and failures/successes) for awhile, but didn’t know how to politely go about delving into his life. This assignment proved to be the outlet I was looking for.
What I like about my story is that I have written an article on someone that I had an interest in beforehand. I knew background information and what I wanted to discover before the interview began or was even scheduled. In constructing my story, I was able to enhance my knowledge about aviation and learned the amount of dedication, practice and repetition that is involved in success. Through developing my story I was able to apply the work ethics and “winners” mentality that I need to adapt in my life to become successful. Thus, I was able to learn about myself through learning and researching a successful athlete. I believe my ability to take good notes during the interview and convey the ideas and translate the jargon used in the interview worked extremely well. Also, the secondary sources that I chose worked well being that all of them have aviation knowledge, whether they have relatives that are pilots or are pilots themselves. In my sources having this extra knowledge, I believe they are more credible and impact the reader more than someone with no prior aviation experience.
An issue that made the assignment hard was the fact that I had to conduct my interview over the phone being I am in a different state than my profile. I was unable to meet face to face, as I would have preferred, but given the type of story I do not feel that the nonverbal messages I may have missed hindered the outcome of my story. Another problem that I had that did not make the story work as I had anticipated was the interview went in a different direction than I had planned. When I was planning the questions that I wanted to ask, I thought the interview would go in the strict direction of discussing Chambliss’ past performances and how he achieved his dream one step at a time. Yet, as the interview continued I began noticing that despite how I phrased the question I was not receiving the response I had wanted or thought I had wanted. However, at the conclusion of the interview what I thought was going to deter my story resulted in better answering my questions and improving my story.
I went about getting my story by doing background research on Chambliss on the internet, so as to discover the events he has won and competed in. I then contacted my family who gave me Chambliss’ contact information. After preparing my questions and having biographical information I then interviewed Chambliss, his wife, and friends via telephone. What I learned about this assignment is that it takes much more work to complete than does an event article because you are disclosing personal information, not just concepts that could potentially ruin someone’s reputation. I learned that I need to be more accurate in my writing, ask more questions when I don’t understand concepts and note newsworthy quotes. Most importantly, in the story I need to use said, not says.
If there are any parts of the story that I wish for you to comment on they would be my ability to concisely convey the messages and explanations of the ideas introduced. I tend assume the readers will understand a concept; therefore, I leave out details that the reader needs to comprehend the story. I would approach an assignment like this differently next time in that I would have a video recorder so that I would be able to actively participate and leave out the awkward silences in the conversation where I am finishing writing down the last topic covered. Overall, I enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to conduct an interview outside the normal face to face environment. I have never interviewed someone over the phone as my primary source. Yet, I do not feel it impacts the interview in a negative way, but rather allows both parties to be more relaxed in the comfort of their home or office. In asking questions that may seem forward in many settings, this assignment provided a welcoming conversational atmosphere; an atmosphere that I would like to be involved in again.
