Interviews:

Listening attentively to people is an art form; a technique with lifelong value.

Always do this | Drafting questions to ask | Reporting | How to write it up | substance | reporting

Asking people what they think, or assessing what people do in order to get a better understanding of a field that interests you requires that you pay particular attention to how people respond. Listen closely to what they say and what they explain; but also pay some attention to what they do not reveal about their experiences.

For example go to and listen to Naked Scientists: radio and podcasts

When interviewing people always

1. Introduce yourself, your affiliation and contact information, and what you hope to achieve by talking with the respondent. Put them at ease.
2. Always assure the person you speak with of their anonymity, your educational purpose, and the fact that the information you will gather is for the instructor's eyes only and not to be shared with others.
3. Protecting the respondents' confidentiality and privacy are of utmost importance, so reassure people.
4. Try to make people comfortable with you and have appropriate follow up or back-up questions to ask if they prove hard to get a response from or are difficult to pin down.

Steps One, Two , Three.

What is a good interview?

One

In crafting your questions and writing up your respondent's answers, be sure to consider these questions.

Who says this and their level of authority is?

What are they saying and of what importance is your focusing on that?

When did they say it; in what period did it occur? For how long did it last?

Where is this being said, where are these authorities from, or where did it occur?

How do they say it (voice, emphasis, tone) and how do they argue (present evidence) their case?

What is a good interview?

Two

Suggestions about substance of the interview questions

Three

Presenting your findings:

don't forget to:

• When you report on the interviews in writing consider that every person you interview deserves a page (at a minimum) reviewing who they are (gender, age, ethnicity, or title), what they do (occupation, avocation, interests), how they responded in the interview and to what questions, when you interviewed them and for how long. List some of their expressions to get a feel for their personality. This may be a narrative or a verbatim transcript of what was asked and said.

• In addition to each respondent, you can (but it is not required) to make a table showing the similarities and differences among the people you interviewed.

• Lastly you should in two to three pages be able to summarize in a reflective narrative, or descriptive writing, what themes emerge as common ground among the people you interview on the subject. You may also discuss the meaning and extent of the divergence among your informants and how these significantly influence your grasp of the subjects you were talking to these people about.

So the written submission of your interviews should be no less than four pages, including a brief description of each person and any supporting material from texts you may wish to use.

You always get credit for how much you write and the frequency of references to the authors you are reading.

see criteria

Sample Interviews, http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/

Terms | Glossary | Word webs | Basic vocabulary | Advanced Vocabulary | Antonyms | Synonyms

Writing | Interviews | Free Writing | What is a good interview? | My criteria

Home Page | Annotated Site Map | Quick Look