My experience with reasearching via interview...

To be honest, i have not really done many formal interviews but if you are to consider the experience of my entire life, i do remember one interview in 8th grade where i had to interview a teacher on there childhood experiences and where he/she grew up. Well, from what i recall, I set up an appointment with Ms. Coddington about a week in advance. We had a specific time and place to meet. A couple of classmates and I had a date with my 6th grade teacher. She was probably one of the most influential teachers in my grammar school days, and i was very curious in hearing about the days when she was our age. So, on the day we met, i was excited to do this interview. I just couldn't wait. During the interview, i had my pen, paper, and various questions to ask her. I think that our 8th grade teachers gave us the questions but nonetheless it helped us conduct the interview and gave us the information in order to write our papers. My friends and I listened carefully to all the details, and marked down all the important pictures, diagrams, and major events in her life. After we asked her all the questions given to us by our teachers, we asked her other questions pertaining to her lives. She went on to add a ton of information that actually almost put us to sleep. After the interview, we thanked her, and said our goodbyes. Now we had the information to write out our paper.

I think that the inportant factors that helped me conduct the interview was the fact that i was enthused about the experience. I has a certain sense of curiosity that helped me stay focused on the topic at hand. Another inportant step was the method of preparation. We had set a time and place to meet, and we had notes and questions to help us conduct the interview in a concise and effective manner. If I had to improve on anything, it would be the amount of time we spent with Ms. Coddington. I think that we already had all the necessary information, but we stuck around so long that we were asking questions that did not ever pertain to the topic we needed which was only about her childhood to the point where we got sleepy, and couldn't focus on the topic anymore. Hey, we were kids, we had short attention spans!!