Interview Report

1
Interview Report

• Purpose?
• Not just a transcript of the questions and
  answers, but a short essay about the person and
  his/her ideas or actions.

2
Planning

• How will you record?
• Pen and paper, tape recorder
• How conduct? Telephone? Face to face
• What do you know about the person or the topic.
  Do you need to do some research?
• Explain to person the purpose of your interview
  and schedule a time/place.

3
Questions

• Who, what, when, where, why?
• Open questions
• Can you describe the most important part of your
  trip to Africa?
• Closed questions
• When did you go?
• Avoid leading or slanted questions
• How could you stand to be in a third world
  country without running water?
• Instead What were some of the challenges living
  in a third world country?

4
Questioning

• Think about specific topics to cover and write
  questions for each one.
• Begin with basics/background information
• Put your subject at ease with general questions
• Put questions on left side of paper with room for
  answers on right

5
Interview itself

• Introduce yourself and explain again the purpose
  of the interview
• Listen more than you speak. Encourage your
  subject to talk.
• Nod, make eye contact. Pay attention to body
  language.
• Be flexible. If it is clear your subject is
  uncomfortable or does not understand the
  question, rephrase or ask another.

6
Techniques

• Clarification
• Do you mean this or that?
• Explanatory
• What do you mean?
• Detailing
• What happened exactly
• Analytical
• What were the causes? Effects?
• Probing
• What do you think was the significance of that?
• Comparative
• Did that remind you of anything?
• Contextual
• What else was going on at that time?
• Summarizing
• What was the net effect? Overall, what was your
  response?

7
More

• Be tactful
• Listen between the lines
• Expect more to come up at end of interview and
  allow it to.
• Follow up
• If applicable, notice details about the person
  that might be telling gestures, clothing, manner
  of speaking, etc. and include them in your report
  .

8
Writing Report

• Make sure the interviewees ideas and insights are
  the heart of the report not your ideas
• Use summary, paraphrase, quotations
• Allow the voice of the interviewee to come
  through
• Organize your report.
• Introduction including a loose thesis
• Divide into paragraphs make sure the paragraphs
  have a point and that they logically support your
  general thesis
• Integrate the quotations into your sentences
  smoothly. Use transitions to link ideas
• Proof-read!!!