On Monday, I got to go see Marty Moss-Coane speak at The Kelly Writers House at Penn.

For those unfamiliar with Philadelphia airwaves, Marty’s been on the air for the last 27 years for two hours every day. She’s gotten to talk to people like Salman Rushdie, Michael Chabon, and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

The purpose of her visit was to talk about the process of interviewing someone, making them comfortable enough to share their experiences while also making sure that the conversation doesn’t just dribble into meaningless banter that becomes boring to listen to.

I was required to attend the talk for my journalistic storytelling class at Penn which, among other very important things, has taught me that long paragraphs are bane of the modern reader.

Now all that needs to be done is to apply that knowledge to real-world writing about people, a feat which is obviously much easier said than done.