— Each student volunteer will preselect and cue up a five-minute segment to show

the class;

— Each volunteer will introduce his or her excerpt briefly by placing it in context of

the overall interview;

— Each volunteer will ask the group two or three questions about their reactions to

his or her communication behaviors;

— After viewing the segment, the class will (1) respond to the student’s questions; (2)

highlight the strengths of the volunteer’s interviewing; (3) suggest improvements,

especially focusing on the areas the volunteer is curious about. Different parts of the

segment may need to be replayed to reinforce points made in the feedback.

• Be clear and specific with students at the outset of the course about your expectations for

participation; this is not a course in which someone can opt out of assignments or most

exercises simply because he or she is uncomfortable. Students’ discomfort with interpersonal

situations may be the very reason why a course in interviewing is important for them to take.

A useful analogy may be the case of swimming lessons. People who take swimming lessons

may indeed be afraid of the water, but no one who signs up for instructions expects to be able

to avoid this fear by practicing strokes and breathing out of the water, or by grasping only the

theory of swimming. Rather, they learn to swim by swimming . . . or they decide they don’t

really want to take swimming lessons. Just as there are no swimming lessons without

swimming, there is no interviewing class without some of the interpersonal discomfort (for
certain students, at least) of interviewing strangers, being asked about one’s beliefs, and

volunteering for feedback in class through role-playing scenarios and similar activities.