Considerations about Interviewing

Oral historian Sherna Gluck in Doing Oral History has observed that, "the best oral history is quasi-monologue on the part of the interviewee which is encouraged by approving nods, appreciative smiles, and enraptured listening and stimulated by understanding comments and intelligent questions."

1. An interview is more than a conversation. You are a listener and your informant is a storyteller who is sharing a narrative to be preserved and shared for future generations.
   
   
2. One of an interviewer's main goals is to elicit information from people that allows us to see how the world looks through their eyes. Your job is to help the informants become comfortable and forthcoming.
   
   
3. Think of your tape-recorded interview as a "trialogue," not a "dialogue." The three parties are: you (the interviewer), your informant, and anyone who will listen to the tape recording or read its transcript in the future.
   
   
4. Interviewing requires honesty and respect for one's informants.

FUNDAMENTAL RULES FOR ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWING

Donald Ritchie, Doing Oral History, lists the fundamental rules that apply to all types of oral history interviewing:

1. Do your homework.
2. Be prepared.
3. Construct meaningful but open-ended questions.
4. Don't interrupt responses.
5. Follow up on what you have heard.
6. Know your equipment thoroughly.
7. Promptly process your tapes.
8. Always keep in mind and practice ethics of interviewing.

Before the Interview Begins

Be prepared by gathering all materials needed to conduct the interview. Everything should be in place so the interview can begin and end on time. Depending on the design of your Q.S.O.S. project, you may want to assemble some or all of these items and "Informant Checklist" (Appendix F):

Guidelines for What to Ask

Quick Questions

In order to guide the interview, we have created a "Quick Questions" form (Appendix G). This helps the interviewer quickly learn about the informant and optimize the use of the forty-five minute interview. This form is a list of simple "yes" or "no" questions. It can be given to the informant to fill out before the interview is conducted or may be used as an icebreaker by the interviewer before the interview begins.

Interview Quadrant Questions

The forty-five minute interview can be informally structured into four ten-minute quadrants, with five minutes to wrap-up the interview. Questions and conversation should flow freely between the quadrant topics. There will be overlap and repetition of material, which is fine. The purpose of the quadrants is to help structure the interview and to ensure the purposes of comparison and analysis. (See Appendix H.)

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