Sun-hong’s online journal

Interview tips.

The key is in zeroing in on someone who intrigues, inspires, fascinates, or perplexes you.

Deciding on who you want to interview may be a matter of answering some of the following questions: who would you like to learn more about? who has been a model of how to live life for your? who do you know that has overcome or learned some important things from his or her particular life experience? who would you like to know better? whose life is a mystery to you? Whose are you most fascinated by?  p.27

Let people know exactly what your purpose is, in advance. Be clear about whether the interview is only for your own research purposes, or for them and their families, or for possible publication.  (p.2

Always respect the wishes of the people you are interviewing. Request permission to use the tape recorder and tell what the recording will be used for (P.2

Do as much background preparation on the person’s life as possible. (p.29).
The more you can let your person know you know exactly what he or she is talking about, the smoother the interview will flow. (p.29).

Be sure you know your equipment and that it is operating properly (p.29).

Everybody probably has their own spot where they feel most comfortable, too. (p.30)

record your own introduction on the tape, something like.

“This is July 1, 1996, and I am interviewing Jane Clark at her home in Cornish, Maine, My name is Robert Atkinson and this is tape 96.7a.  This can also serve as a final double check on your equipment before you actually begin the interview. Then, label side A of the tape with the same information, and you are ready to begin. Be sure you do the same thing for side B of the tape and for tape 2, if you use two tapes.  (P.30) .

After you’ve explained your approach to the person, you might start out by saying something like, “where would you like to begin the story of your life?”
If you use yes-no questions, you may have to follow them up with reason-why questions..
What you really want to get at is the meaning behind the event.  p.31

An interview is like a conversation, but it is not a conversation. An interview should be informal and loose, like a conversation, but in an interview, the other person is the one doing the talking. You are the one doing the listening. Your knowledge and your voice should remain in the background, primarily providing support and encouragement. (p.32).
A good guide is reassuring (p.33).

First, consider the storyteller first
Second, safeguard the storyteller’s rights
Third, make your objectives clear; the aims, purpose, and agenda of the interviewer

The specific questions to ask, those that would get at what you really want to know about the person, are secondary and almost straightforward. The difficult part of the interview itself is a personal, or rather interpersonal, style that invites the person telling the story to do so on a deep, feeling level. (p.40).

More helpful questions are the open-ended descriptive, structural, and contrast questions, which encourage more thoughtful, developed answers. A descriptive question would be one that gives a “grand tour” response, such as, “how would you describe your childhood?” (p.41).

It is important to know before you begin what you ultimately want to find out about the person, but the less structure a life story interview has, the more effective it will be in achieving the goal of getting the person’s own story in the way, form, and style that the individual wants to tell it in. (p.41).

It is more often the case that the fewer questions you ask in a life story interview, the better. (P.42).

Experience is the meaning maker in our lives. However we face life, either directly, sideways, or with our back to it, this is how we are shaped by life. Our experience of the world around us is what change us. (p.45).

It is always better to end a life story interview with a few questions that help us reflect back over the whole of our lives. Taking a look at our lives as a whole will give us a better understanding of what the major themes and influences of our lives have been. (p.51).

Perphas most important, when you have actually completed the life story interview, you will know firsthand what this experience is like, that it really is one of the most powerful person-to-person interactions possible. (p.53).