Interview-format article question

dankrubis

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Hello! I'm pretty green. I'm doing a bunch of articles for a website. Basically friends of friends.

I'm on the last article and the guy I interviewed, everything out of his mouth was golden. So I'm thinking of doing the format where it's basically a copy/paste of the interview transcript-

Me: How did you blah blah blah?

Him: Well I blah blah blah. Blah.

Etc.

Obviously, people don't often speak in a grammatically correct fashion. Plus there are odd asides that really don't need to be included, stutters, starting a sentence but not finishing and going onto another sentence, all that. Not to mention how I only need around 500 words and the transcript is 2800.

My question is, how much freedom do I have to change the actual interview transcript? For instance-

Actual interview transcript-

Me: How did you blah blah blah?

Him: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah! Blah. Blah blah blah. Blah. BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH. Blahblah. Blah. Blah blah! Blah! Blah! Blah.

Could I essentially omit everything in red? As long as I'm not changing the meaning of what he's saying in any way, shape or form? Or is this a huge no-no?

Going even further, can I fix sentences? If he misspeaks and something's not grammatically correct, can fix that if I don't alter the meaning?

Also, say he tells a story about something that has nothing to do with what I asked him, but it's a really good story that I'd like to include. Can I write up a leading question so what he says makes sense?

Any help would be appreciated!
 

WildScribe

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The short answer is... yes to all of the above. If you're replacing a pronoun, use brackets. For example:

Quote: He went to the beach every summer.

Problem: You want to delete the long lead up about "my father".

Solution: [My father] went to the beach ever summer.

Also, I usually touch up quotes so that they are grammatically correct (especially when people interview over email and have atrocious spelling and/or grammar), but don't change sentences around too much, and do NOT every change the meaning of something your subject said, even a little, or take things out of context. Otherwise, you're free to use as much or as little of the interview as you want.

And lastly, feel free to make up a leading question for the story as long as it is reasonable and (again) doesn't change the context of said story.

If you're careful and accurate, you're not doing anything wrong. And I've actually had sources call me to thank me for "making them sound smart" (mostly in the case of people who "uh" and "um" a lot. :)
 

dankrubis

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All right, sweet. I need to get a journalism book or something. All the freelance books I've read assume you know all this stuff. And yeah, I just got a response from a guy like that the other day. He praised me for making him look "MOST EXCELLENT."

Thanks for the help, Wildscribe!
 

WildScribe

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No problem. And good luck! :)
 

fov

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I need to get a journalism book or something. All the freelance books I've read assume you know all this stuff.

IIRC, The Renegade Writer has a chapter about this.