Interviewing

For this assignment you will interview and be interviewed by someone in this class.

If you are doing interviews as part of your project, if possible interview your partner on a topic related to the project, so that this is a dry run for those interviews. If that's not feasible, pick a topic (or two) of mutual interest about which you can ask a number of questions.

Aim for interviews of about 45 minutes to one hour in length. RECORD YOUR INTERVIEWS. Many people use their own computers or recorders. You may want to try recording to an iPod or to your computer. Audacity is a free audio recording/editing software that works on Windows/Mac/Linux. In any case, an external mic may be useful. Nancy has one you can borrow. Email her for more details.

Before the interview, develop a set of questions in the order in which you plan to ask them. During the interview, you may need to re-order. Afterward, eflect on how you would revise the topics and questions including wording and ordering.

Transcribe at least part of an interview -- either this interview, or, if relevant, one you have done for your project. The rule of thumb is that it takes (for a good typist!) three times as long to transcribe as the interview itself, so you don't have to transcribe the whole thing, but you should spend at least an hour transcribing

In sum, you will do the following:

1. Interview someone else in the class
2. Be interviewed by someone else in the class
3. Do an hour of transcribing of this interview (or, if you have done some interviews for your project already, you can substitute one of those)

Each pair of you, please turn in your papers together so that we have both the interviewer's and interviewee's reports.

EACH of you should turn in:

1. A short statement of the goals of your interview.
2. The list of questions you planned to use in your interview.
3. A revised set of questions: how you would do it differently were you to do it again. (This can be a separate list, or an annotation of your initial list, but we have to have both versions.)
4. Your transcription.
5. A short report on the interview for which you were the interviewer. Not the transcription, but a summary of key findings. About 2 pages.
6. Two reflections: one on being the interviewee, one as the interviewer, about one page each.
7. As interviewee, a page or so of feedback to the interviewer: what advice would you give him/her on questions, but especially on behavior, attitude, and the like during the interview? (Give them a copy of this, as well as one for us.)

Due Oct 14.Please be concise while thorough; no part of this needs to be very long.

Note: ask Nancy or Elizabeth if you're looking for audio recording software to put on your Mac or PC