IMR 604

DOCUMENTING ORAL TRADITION

FACULTY OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

A Three Part Interview
Structure
 Focus
 First hand experience
 Each interviewee should be treated
as individual
 No two interviews should be made
up of exactly the same questions
A Three Part Interview
Structure

ORIENTATION QUESTIONS

 To identify interviewee and their

social background

COMMON QUESTIONS

 Theme can be developed and

interviewees responses can be
compared
A Three Part Interview
Structure

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

 To gain information about

interviewee’s personal experience
The three part structure
provides:
 An excellent framework for interview
 To avoid aimless or superficial
interviews
 Easier to use for research,
publication or broadcast
Principles involved

 Narrow focus
 Well-defined structure
 Questions that add complexity and
depth
 How to begin?
 Ask yourself- what do I hope to find out from
this interview
 Jot down the topics and issues that come to
mind and arrange them in some kind of
logical order
 Use information gained from background
research to expand and refine your list
 Discuss it with friends, colleagues or lecturer
for oral history
 Put yourself in someone else’s shoes-asked
what would you feel
 Discuss your ideas with the interviewee-
collaborative approach
 How to begin?
 Published questionnaires for further
ideas
 Never use published questionnaires
without adaptation to your project
 Spent time thinking about which
questions to ask and how to ask them.
 Expand and adapt the questionnaires
to your style of talking
The important of orientation
questions
 Identify interviewees
 To know their social background
 To help establish each interviewees point
of view
 To give future researchers essential
information
 To break the ice, easy to answer
 Contain family background
 Will repeat some of the information from
preliminary interview, but important to
have it recorded
Common questions
 Questions that will be asked to all
interviewees
 To get different point of view and able to
compare and contrast all the responses

 Example (education topic):

 Why choose teaching profession
 Who was your idol and why

 Add complexity and depth

 Role of teachers in community
 Cooperation between schools
Specific questions
 Objective- to reveal the unique aspect of
individual interviewee’s experience
 Example (education topic):
 Did you ever help poor student out of
your way
 Did any parent ever interfere your work
 What were the real challenge at the
time
 Putting questions on paper
 Useful exercise to write down questions in full
and excellent way to explore the topic in
detail
 Many interviewers reduce their
questionnaires to just a page or two of
keywords
 At a glance, you know what you are going to
ask based on your practice
 You need familiarize yourself with the topics
 Leave wide margin on the paper-to jot down
notes and ideas for further questions
 Questionnaires should be your servant
and not your master
 Open your mind for fresh questioning
avenues
Final preparations

 Practice with recording equipment

until you can operate it properly
 Never show any sign of competence
 Check to make certain that the
recorder and microphone are in
proper working order
 Rely on electrical current- if you
need to use batteries, make sure
they are new
Final preparations

 Bring:
 Several spare tapes
 Pack an extension cord
 Take at least two pens
 Interviewer’s notes and word list
 The copy of the interview outline
 Gift or present