Conducting an In-Depth Interview

This was a pretty straightforward article. Some suggestions the article made about in-depth interviewing were

• create open-ended questions
• have some pre-planned questions while being flexible enough for natural flow of conversation
• seek clarity, interpretation, and understanding
• listen, and keep discussion conversational
• remember to record the responses, your observations, and your reflections
• watch out for nonverbal cues
• release the feeling that you need power or to be in control

The author then examines the seven steps of interviewing

1. Thematizing - clarifying your purpose. What do you want to find out?
2. Designing - make a list of issues, and then some specific questions and follow-up questions. Make an interview guide containing facesheet, actual questions, and post-interview comment sheet.
3. Interviewing - three parts: establishing yourself to the interviewee, put respondent at ease, and then listen and observe as you conduct your interview. Do so by using active listening and audio recording, and you must be patient and flexible.
4. Transcribing - use the audio tape to write out every question and response exactly as they occurred, and then include your notes in highlighted text.
   
5. Analyze - figure out the meaning of the interview. Find common themes, patterns, etc
6. Verifying - use triangulation to check the validity of your information - compare it to past interviewees, past research, have someone fresh read over your data, etc
7. Reporting - share what you have learned; write a report!

As I said above, this article was pretty straightforward. Having participated on Newswatch16 as photog for the reporters who interview people all over Tompkins County, and having conducted some interviews before myself, these are pretty much the same techniques I have encountered. I never needed to write down the entire transcript before though, it having been mostly on video and for video, but in Second Life that shouldn't be too hard since it's all text based. Also, I'm not sure I've ever made an exact interview guide, although I can certainly see its usefulness when conducting multiple interviews at a time. Overall, this should be helpful at least as an overview when we conduct our interviews in Second Life.