CONSTRUCTING and CONDUCTING an INTERVIEW
An interview with a person who is knowledgeable about your topic is a required source for information for the written part of your Senior Project. In addition to giving information, an interview can give you insights that build your understanding of the topic. Finding the right person to interview is a big part of this task. The next big part is preparing good questions so that the answers you get are useful to you and expand your knowledge and understanding.
Finding a person to interview can be challenging, but it can be done. Look in the telephone directory for organizations that are connected to your topic, ask friends and family for leads, check with your teachers to see if they might know someone who is knowledgeable about your topic.
The questions you ask should express your genuine interest in the person and in the topic. You might ask what first caused the person to be interested in the topic and how they got started in the field. Finding out things you don’t know or don’t know how to do is important also. Developing follow up questions before the interview will help you keep things moving along.
After you create your interview questions do a mock interview with another person to hear how it sounds and get feed back.
Try to be flexible during the interview and follow interesting lines of thought even though it may different from what you planned. If you can tape the interview that can be very helpful, you should be prepared to take notes as well. At the end of the interview, thank the person for her/his time and ask if it would be all right for you to call on the telephone with further questions.
