Interview Assignment PDF

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The assignment is the instructions for the overarching project for the class. ...

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Interview Assignment – 100 Points A Taste of Our History: A Service-Learning Project Spring 2020 General Description* We will discuss details for this project more in class. I just wanted to provide you with a general description of what we will be doing for the interview assignment. As noted in the syllabus, on March 17 you will have to interview an elderly person who grew up or lived in the Ozark/Ouachita Region for most of their life. The goal is to gather life information, but also ask target questions about foodways and foods associated with the region. You will get a specific recipe from the interviewee and use that to develop a dish for the end of the course. I equate this project to my oral history assignments typically used in my Social Gerontology course. For our purposes, we can define an “oral history” as - a document reflecting someone's memories and life experiences. You will not be required to interview someone alone. The current plan is to have you pair up with another student. You will type the results of your interview and email it by the April 7 deadline. What you turn in will need to be six pages minimum. *Note: The instructors for the course are currently exploring Institutional Review Board (Human Subjects Committee) approval. Though I submit an IRB application for my Social Gerontology oral history projects, there has been discussion of oral history projects not needing IRB approval. We may move forward with it anyway. With that in mind, you may have to complete CITI Training, which is technically required for all Tech researchers. Find out more about it on the ATU Human Subjects Committee webpage (https://www.atu.edu/ospui/human_subjects.php). If we go this direction, I will work up a consent form and we will have all interviewees sign off on it before participation. I will post it in this content area if necessary. The instructors will provide more information on this issue as the course progresses. How do I find someone to interview? The course organizer is working with representatives from an assisted living facility. She will gather a list of 12 interviewees, and I will select one for each interview team. We will have preliminary meetings with interviewees on March 12. You will get to know your interviewee on that day, let them know a little about the types of questions you will ask, and have them specifically thinking about something they ate throughout their life in this region – facility Wi-Fi info below if needed. They do not have to have much prepared for the subsequent visit, but we probably want them to have the recipe written down before the March 17 interviews. What kinds of questions should I ask? I recommend following a chronological order. In other words, start with where the person was born, continue with questions from their childhood, early adulthood, mid-life, and then old age. Sprinkle questions about food throughout and then end by asking about favorite foods and a specific recipe. We will work on developing food questions later, but for now, look under the “Readings” tab in Blackboard for the manuscript titled On the Edge of the Ozarks for sample

interviews. These come from Social Gerontology courses I taught before. They are perfect for you to model an interview schedule after. How do I need to format this? Look at the sample oral histories with the On the Edge of the Ozarks reading. Structure your document exactly like the interviews you see there. Use Times New Roman, 12-point font, and double space where applicable. Considering the samples, there will be differences for this class. We will be taking pictures of interviewees to include, perhaps with the university photographer. However, for now plan on snapping a shot of your interviewee with your phone on the March 12 preliminary visit. You will put that picture at the front of the assignment you turn in to me. You will type up the recipe provided to you below it. You will then present questions and responses from your interview. There are other oral history projects you can review aside from On the Edge of the Ozarks. You can find copies in the ATU library and Pope Country library here in Russellville. They are titled Voices of Pope County and River Valley Reflections. Is there anything else I need to know to prepare for the interview? See the reading "The PIPES Procedure" at the link below. It is a step by step procedure for oral history projects in the journal Arkansas Libraries. What you are looking for starts on page 4. Pay attention to the section discussing the interview process and familiarizing yourself with the target population. Is there anything else I need to know before typing out the interview? 1. You will record these interviews. I have MP3 voice recorders. I will probably bring them to class before the interviews so we can familiarize ourselves with their functioning. You might be more comfortable using your phone to record the interview. 2. You will have to transcribe what you record. You will have in between March 17 and April 7 to do this. Do not fool yourself into thinking this will be an easy process you can complete the night before the interview assignment is due. You will have to listen carefully to what you recorded and do your best to type it out verbatim. You might also need time to re-contact your interviewee in order to clarify aspects of the interview. 3. You will notice in the samples provided that you should try to stay true to the dialect used. For example, if someone says "fixin'," do not correct it to say "fixing." Correcting inflections will take away from the essence of the interview. Also, you have leeway in using brackets to elaborate on points made by the interviewee – again, see oral history samples. Go ahead and consider a hypothetical here anyway. Someone tells you, "I used to work at Leonard's on Arkansas when I was a teenager." You can clarify like this... "I used to work at Leonard's [Hardware Store] on Arkansas [Avenue] when I was a teenager.” Do not get out of control with brackets, but I think with that example you can see how they can give some needed clarification...