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212 F23 Interview Essay
212 F23 Interview Essay
Assignment Details
You will interview three different people inquiring about their perspectives about what excites, scares,
and confuses them most about the techno-future. These three people should clearly be from different
generations. In other words, you cannot interview three of your close friends whose ages are near your
own. Ideally, you should aim for someone who is much younger than you (at least 10 years), someone
who is around your parents’ age, and someone who is around your grandparents’ age. As an alternative,
you can substitute one of your interviewees with a chatbot (chatGPT, Claude, etc.). You cannot interview
me for this assignment. You should ask permission to interview these people—don’t assume they will
help out. You will also want to think of at least one back-up. Saying that your interviewees didn’t
respond is not an excuse not to complete the assignment. Be sure to be prepared for that possibility.
This interview can be done whenever and wherever is most convenient for you and your interviewee: in
person, at home, at a public location, online, or any other means. If you conduct the interview in person,
stay safe—wear a mask and maintain social distance!
Draft a list of questions in advance and share them with your interviewee in advance if possible. The
questions you decide to ask are your choice, depending on your interests and the people you choose to
interview. You should, however, take the time to explain what we are discussing in class. It might be
helpful to briefly explain your own personal definition of “techno-future.” You might accomplish this by
giving examples from class or examples from movies or TV shows you’ve seen.
When you are drafting your list of questions, you might consider the following ideas. You are not limited
to these, but you must ask the same questions to each of your three interviewees.
Once you are finished with each interview, make sure to record your own reactions immediately
afterwards. You will need them in this paper.
Once you complete the interviews, type up a summary of the experience, including with whom you
spoke and why, and the comments you found most interesting. Be sure to share a brief self-reflection on
what you learned as a result of this experience. Be aware of how much quoted material you are using. In
formal essays, if you use quotes, you should aim for an equal amount of analysis. This should keep you
on track for limiting quotes. Summarize the responses you found most interesting. Your summary must
be written in paragraph form. If you list a question and its response, you will not have success on this
assignment. On a separate page after your essay, please list all the questions you asked along with the
names of the individuals you interviewed.
Framework B
Introduction • Overview of questions you asked your interviewees
• Overview of interviewees
Question Group A • A review of the questions you asked and all interviewees’ responses
Question Group B • A review of the questions you asked and all interviewees’ responses
Question Group C • A review of the questions you asked and all interviewees’ responses
Conclusion • Your own reflection about what you learned from these interviews.
Grading
I will use the ENGL 212 rubric to grade this essay. I will be looking for consistent use of the same
questions across all three interviews. I will be looking for thoughtful reflections of your own following
the interviews.