InTERvIEwInG 331inTerVieWing
An interview helps to answer the research question(s) motivating your
study by gathering concrete details and stories from various people. In
her book Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics, and Performance, D. Soyini
Madison offers this advice: “When you first begin to formulate questions, a
useful exercise is to reread your research question or problem over several
times and then ask yourself, ‘If this is what I am to understand, then what is
it that I need to know about it to answer the questions or address the prob-
lem?’ You will then list everything of interest that comes to mind” (p. 31). It’s
certainly possible to conduct an interview by phone, especially if the inter-
viewee is not local, but a face-to-face conversation, in which you can note
physical details and body language, is preferable.
The ways writers incorporate interviews into their writing appears almost
seamless, but keep in mind that a finished text hides the process that went into
a successful interview. You don’t see the planning that occurs. Writers have to
make appointments with the people they interview, develop a script or list of
questions before the interview, and test the questions beforehand to see if they’re
likely to lead to the kind of information they’re seeking. In other words, the key
to a successful interview is preparation. The following information should help
you plan your interview and prepare you for writing down your results.Binder, M., & Kotsopoulos, S. (2011). Multimodal literacy narratives:
Weaving the threads of young children’s identity through the arts.
Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25 (4), 339–363.
Buckingham, D. (2007). Digital media literacies: Rethinking media
education in the age of the Internet. Research in Comparative and
International Education, 2 (1), 43–55.
Hall, T. (2011). Designing from their own social worlds: The digital
story of three African American young women. English Teaching:
Practice and Critique, 10 (1), 7–20.
Hughes, J. (2009). New media, new literacies and the adolescent
learner. E-Learning, 6 (3), 259–271.
Hull, G., & Katz, M. (2006). Crafting an agentive self: Case studies of
digital storytelling. Research in the Teaching of English, 41 (1), 43–81.
Ranker, J. (2007). Designing meaning with multiple media sources:
A case study of an eight-year-old student’s writing processes.
Research in the Teaching of English, 41 (4), 402–434.
Vasudevan, L., Schultz, K., & Bateman, J. (2010). Rethinking compos-
ing in a digital age: Authoring literate identities through multi-
modal storytelling. Written Communication, 27 (4), 442–468.11_GRE_5344_Ch11_313_342.indd 331 11/19/14 11:02 AM