Intensive Interview

Intensive Interview Paper details: Instructions: In this assignment, you will interview an older relative or friend, using the techniques learned in class. Y our written report will show both what you learned during the interview and your mastery of the interview techniques. ?WHAT TO DO Identify a family member or friend who is willing to participate in this project. The person should be significantly older than you, and preferably of a different generation. Choose one of the following topics to talk about with your informant: 1. Food traditions and experiences: e.g., the foods, meals, and treats your informant ate as a child; how their family used special f oods for celebrations and holidays; who was and wasn’t involved with preparing the food . 2. Military experiences: e.g., how your informant or their family members came to join the military; experiences they had; superiors and colleagues; effects on their th inking and lives . 3. Law enforcement / corrections experiences: e.g., how your informant or their family members came to a job or career in law enforcement or corrections; experiences they had; colleagues and superiors; effects on their thinking and lives . 4. Childhood play and toys: e.g., how your informant played as a child; favorite kinds of toys and places to play; contrasts and/or similarities to modern toys and play . 5. Community/social services experience: e.g., how your informant was an administrator and /or recipient of community services or social services; specific experiences and memories; how the experiences affected their thinking and lives . 6. Education: e.g., what it was like for your informant in school; favorite and least favorite teachers and subj ects; friends and enemies . Set up one or more mutually agreeable times to talk together. Your interview must be conducted in voice - to - voice communication. Therefore, meeting in person, talking by phone, or Skype are all acceptable, but e - mail, texting, an d instant messaging are not. Give your informant a general idea of the topics you’ll be asking about, but do not provide a specific list of questions in advance. Your interview should be at least 30 minutes and ideally an hour , and you may conduct multipl e interviews if you want (with the same person). While doing this project, you must apply at least five interviewing/oral history techniques that we learned in class. Look over your notes and decide which techniques you will make a conscious effort to use . Prepare for your interview by developing a short Interview Guide of topics and questions, as described in class. Assume that you will not need to ask all of the questions; better to be prepared with too many options than too few. As you conduct the int erview, create follow - up questions based on what your informant tells you, as demonstrated in class, rather than sticking rigidly to your prepared list. During the interview, you must take notes in some way. If you have the capability, you may record your conversation (with your informant’s permission) and later make notes from it. However, these notes are n ot your written report. They are the rough data from which you will develop your paper, but they are not a paper by themselves (i.e., do not simply h and in a transcript of your interview). Your job is to analyze and draw selectively from the data you collect, to create a readable report that addresses what’s most important and interesting from your interview. Direct quotes are acceptable, but your repo rt must be more than a series of quotes. When you review your notes, think about you can organize what you’ve learned in a meaningful way. For example, in an interview about educational experiences, you might notice your informant focused on four themes ( e.g., their early years in school, their high school years, their teachers, and their friends). You could then discuss these four themes one - by - one in your report, rather than simply describing a hodgepodge of everything your informant said. In other words , your report needs to be internally organized around specific themes, even if your interview itself wandered from topic to topic. ? WHAT TO WRITE Write a paper of three to five pages that includes the components below. Your paper should use APA format, in cluding a cover sheet, page numbers, double - spaced, and free of spelling and grammar errors. Do not write an abstract. Save your paper repeatedly as you write it, in .doc or .docx format. Please read over your paper and correct errors before handing it in . a. Begin with a cover page in APA format. b. In the first paragraph, introduce your informant and the topic of your interview. Describe who your informant is, what relationship you have with them, and a brief summary of what’s important to know about them. Assume your reader has no idea who your informant is, and consider yourself to be writing for a formal audience. For example, starting with “I interviewed Grampa who I love” is inappropriate, but “My informant was my grandfather, Ronaldo Gomez, age 76, w ho served in the US Army for 28 years in Kansas, Korea, and California” is fine. c. In the second paragraph, describe the circumstances of your interview(s). Mention the setting, mode of communication (phone, face to face, etc.), date, time, approximate dura tion of interview, how and when you took notes, and anything else you think is relevant. d. For the next several pages, describe what you learned. As explained above, this body of your paper must be organized in a meaningful way, not simply a recapitulation of the interview. Do not list the exact questions you asked your informant; instead, incorporate your informant’s responses into your paper. That’s because you’re writing a paper, not just an interview transcript. Here are two illustrative examples: • Po orly written: “I asked him what kinds of toys he played with when he was a kid. He responded by saying that he mostly played outside with balls and bikes, but sometimes played with his five sisters and their dolls.” • Strongly written: “When Steve was a c hild, he mostly played outside with traditional masculine toys like balls and bats. But he also played sometimes with his five sisters and their dolls.” e. In the next - to - last paragraph, name the five (or more) techniques for oral history interviewing you a pplied during this project, and explain how you applied each one. f. In the last paragraph, describe how your interview felt different (or didn’t feel different) from a normal conversation. Finally, discuss what, if anything, you would do differently if yo u were starting this project from the beginning. ? HOW YOU’LL BE GRADED Your score will be determined by the criteria on the Projec t Five Assessment Rubric , found under “Course Information”