Preparing for an interview

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PREPARING FOR AN INTERVIEW

To collect a good oral history you need to be a good listener. Don't just rely on the tape machine to get the answers to the questions that you ask. Pay close attention to the person talking: look at them, make good eye contact, and follow up on what they say. Feel free to ask follow-up questions that are not on your list if the person shares an unexpected story or fascinating experience. If they talk about something that you aren't clear about - ask them a question or get them to talk about it in a different way until their meaning is clear.

But, there area few things you need to do before you do the interview:

1. Do some research first (before the interviews). The interviewers should know enough about their topic to ask intelligent, informed questions.

     - How old is the person?
     - Think about what events they have lived through.
     - How did they or their family earn a living?

2. Prepare a list of at least 10 to 20 questions before you go to the interview. MAKE SURE NOT TO ASK LEADING QUESTIONS (i.e. "Hasn’t the coal industry been a big influence on your life?" or "Wasn’t it hard to walk two miles to school?").

Phrase the questions in such a way that the person being interviewed can express their own opinion – not just react to yours. Ask general questions first and save more specific questions as "back- up" questions (in case the ones that you ask first don’t get a clear response).

3. Try not to interrupt the person being interviewed. Let them tell the story -- in their own way!

Listen to the amount of time they dwell on a topic. Listen for topics they keep coming back to - this is usually because these topics are important to them. Look at the interview with Carlos Henry. How does he talk about his horses? What were their names? What were the names of his brothers and sisters? What can you infer from this?

4. Focus your attention on what the interviewee is saying. Don't let your attention wander. Look at them, use good eye contact, let them know that they are really talking to you - not just to a microphone.

5. Always ask... "Is there anything I forgot to ask that you wanted to tell me."

6. Have fun!

WHAT DO YOU LEARN?

The narrative, the stories that people tell, tend to reflect their lives. Often themes emerge. You may find that people will tell you:

Hardship Stories: adversity due to poverty, illness, personal misfortune, etc.

Hazard Stories: surviving the dangers of a changing economy, world events, natural disasters, etc.

Golden Age Stories: things were cleaner, society was better, children were better behaved, etc..

Adventure Stories: the person has had remarkable a experience or achieved a major goal

Review the following oral histories from the Countdown To Millennium oral history archives to get a sense of possible themes and narrative patterns. Which category or overlapping categories would you place them in?

Bill Christman Dorothy Collier Beulah Gerber Elmer Lowry

Browse the oral history archives on our website at www.frognet,net/countdown and identify additional themes. Once you have gathered an oral history from a member of your local community, how would you describe its themes?

WHAT CAN YOU "READ BETWEEN THE LINES?"

Stories about one-room schoolhouses will lead to insights about what people sacrificed to get an education. You will collect stories of walks to school of 2 or 3 miles. Many people moved away from home and "boarded out" at the age of 14 to go to high school. People overcame a lot of hardships because they felt an education was important.

Stories in which other people are very prominent suggest that the storytellers consider them as important influences on their lives. You may hear detailed recollections of summers spent on grandfather's farm. The speaker may describe someone as "the sweetest person I ever met" or be able to quote exactly the advice he/she once heard. When people review their lives, they usually focus on the relationships that are most meaningful to them.

Stories tell you how national and international events influenced daily life in local communities. You can get a sense of how all Americans were expected to support the war effort from home-front experiences in World War II . Small children collected scrap metals for making airplanes and ships, teenagers worked as farmhands to combat food shortages, and homemakers became welders, radio operators, and machinists in a time of national emergency. People from all walks of life played a part in our nation's history.

INTERVIEWING METHODOLOGY

One method of interviewing is the "Life History" method. The interviews have a basic structure in order to allow comparisons and give context and control. The interview is divided into a number of different areas:

-biographical (family background, childhood, education, etc)

-professional (work experiences, career choices, etc.)

-reactions (personally and professionally) to historical and personal events.