Interviews

Given that much of the focus of Friends World education involves people, it is probably not surprising that more material already exists on interviews than almost any other topic. The material from the 1991 Handbook of Inspiration below covers a number of exercises and ways of going about an interview. In the 1995 Workshop, we focused more on the logistics of interviewing.

Do your research before a formal interview; you may not want to waste your interviewee's time on stuff you could have found out some other way.

Tape recording would seem to be the easiest way to conduct an interview; all you do is talk, and write it down later at your leisure. However, make sure you know what your recorder can do, and don't keep it inside your coat pocket if that is going to muffle and garble all speech beyond comprehension. Not everybody is comfortable talking into a tape recorder. Assuming for the moment that we're all ethical enough not to record someone who doesn't want to be recorded, the next alternative is to take notes.

Shorthand would be an effective tool here, but few (if any) Friends World students have enough fluency in shorthand to make any use of it. The problem with ordinary note-taking is that you are bound to miss some of what is said. One solution is just to listen carefully, and take down what seems to be the most important information. One innovative solution that came up was to work in pairs, since with two people writing and/or remembering, each is more likely to fill in the gaps that the other person missed. Of course an interviewee might be intimidated by more than one person writing down her words, or by anyone writing at all.

Paul Theroux, the travel writer, makes a point of never writing people's speech while he is still in front of them. He has developed (over many years) the ability of interviewing without even a notepad, then writing it down hours later, usually over dinner or lunch. Such skill would probably take a lot of practice, but most of us are here for four years, and a lot of practice could probably be had with all the interviewing that Friends World students do.

Here are some interesting pages on interviewing excerpted from the 1991 Handbook of Inspiration (the workbook tips are at the end):

Inter-Viewing
May 8, 1991

Minutes by Vanessa:
USING INTERVIEWING AS A RESOURCE FOR WRITTEN WORK:
	The aim of today's workshop, Angelica said, was to concentrate 
on how we can use interviewing as a resource for written material in 
our journals.  Angelica voiced concern as to how to know whether to 
write up an interview objectively or subjectively.  Katherine 
suggested using interviews in a more creative way; to let go of 
trying to contain an interview in a certain way by letting it have a 
life of its own.  We discussed the various ways in which to use 
interviewing as a resource for information and for writing.  Vanessa 
talked about an interview project that Beth Wohlleb had done in 
Africa about creativity.  Beth had many great conversations and a 
heap of resourceful material.  After letting this material lie for a 
couple of weeks she put it together as a story involving a little 
girl and a frog.  The story encompassed the material from the 
interviews in a very creative way, and the interviews were listed at 
the end of this story as an interview bibliography.  Jessica said 
that she had done the latter in her learning plan this semester:  as 
part of her list of resources she included people, peers, and 
friends.  Jon-Paul said that "yes, even the word interview, is very 
indicative of just that:  inter - view."  He emphasized that we are 
constantly interviewing one another; the views that you have and the 
views that other people have.  In a piece of writing using the 
interviewing resources, you do the connecting between your views and 
the other person's views.

THE ACTUAL INTERVIEW:
	We discussed the range of interviews that happen from the 
very formal to the everday conversation.  Interviews differ depending on 
whom one is interviewing and what kind of information one is looking 
for.  An interview with someone in the medical profession for 
instance, might involve more focused and prepared questions than an 
interview with an artist about their creative process.  In order to 
do an interview you just need to know what you want to know.  From 
there, you can prepare either start-off questions that will lead 
into a discussion with new questions arising as the interview 
happens, or prepare a specific set of questions that are looking for 
very precise answers such as for statistical interviews.  The 
interview can vary in its possible range of very-prepared, flexible, 
and spontaneous questions.	One important thing that came out of 
this discussion was that, as with SO many things, we can break the 
inaccessibility of the concept of "interviewing."  Let's not put 
"interviewing" on an academic pedestal, as in: "interviewing is a 
thing I never do, and do not know how to do."  WE ARE MORE SKILLED 
AT THIS THAN WE THINK WE ARE.
----------------------
AFTER THE EXERCISE [interviewing each other in pairs]
	Vanessa and Jessica's inter-interviewing went on to the topic 
of approaching interviewing and the idea of using impressions you get 
from the interview-- impressions of body-language-- how people react 
to certain questions-- whether a question makes them uncomfortable, 
or whather they consider a certain question personal or not.  Jessica 
emphasized how much of our information comes from talking to other 
people.  For her experience at Greenham Common, most of her 
information came from just talking to people.  It was particularly 
good, she said, to be able to "interview" over the space of a few 
days; to ask questions, and let others lie till the right moment 
came to ask them; and to enable the space and time for different 
questions to come up at different times.
...
	Vanessa stressed the importance of using interview in our 
writing without solely concentrating on the interview; by using just 
a quote or including just a paragraph that comes from an interview; 
or in order to back up a reflective essay as you do with book 
resources; or to kick off from a conversation or interview.
...
	Angelica and Jon-Paul questioned the use and fomulation of 
questions within an interview.  They started competely free-form and 
tried to see what questions arose.  Their quest for questioning 
questions led to other questions such as "what kinds of answers lead 
to other questions?"
...
	Miho and Chris also threw out the information that there is 
an entire school of thought that believes that "no interview is 
valid unless you share it with the interviewee and ask if it's a 
fair representation of their views."  We discussed the "inter" part 
of "interviewing," and that your interpretation is also valid and 
important.
...
	Katherine and Natasha looked at where they would want to go 
with an interview on transportation in London; and decided that 
beginning with word associations was a productive way to start.  
From there they would ask their interviewee questions on class issues 
and transportation system, as well as what they might do to improve 
public transport in London. This led to a discussion on interview 
questions and the way in which questions can be manipulative, 
encouraging certain answers over other ones.
	Katherine talked about her sexuality project and how formal 
interviewing may provide a safer space in which peole could 
communicate their ideas to her.

Facilitator: Angelica
present: Angelica, Katherine, Jessica, Jon-Paul Hammond, Natasha, Miho, Chris, Vanessa

Workshop Discussion Sparks

Appropriateness of different techniques in different contexts

Inspired and Creative

Create an Interview Handbook for those new to the technique.
Learn shorthand.

Rigorous Training

A couple of good ways to tune your ears are to sit somewhere near lots of people and write down whatever you hear (equivalent to some observation exercises), or take minutes often at community meetings.

AAAAAGGGHHHH!

Try different styles of interviewing until you find one that is not intimidating to you (or to your interviewee).

See Also

Contribute to the Portfolio Resource Guide!!!

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