SWA6 – Field Research: Conducting Your Interview for MWA 3
This assignment consist of conducting an interview and writing an analysis on it by answering questions in my professors instructions that are shown below. Ultimately will need interview questions, answers by the interviewee (You can make your own answers up as long as the answers make sense with reason to discuss in analysis). and then a page analysis.
The topic that i’m writing on is forced proselytism or somewhat forced religion within American school systems. This is stimulating from a topic that was shown in the short story Dead Men’s Path by Chinua Achebe. https://www.sabanciuniv.edu/HaberlerDuyurular/Documents/F_Courses_/2012/Dead_Mens_Path.pdf
Ideally it would make sense to interview a “teacher” or “pastor” for this topic. I placed that in quotations so you’re aware to just make up responses to your own questions created, however if you know a credible person, by all means.
I also attached the rubric to this assignment. It also shows the same instructions I posted below. When looking through it, remember we’re only completing SWA 6. Further towards the bottom you will see the rubric.
PROFESSOR INSTRUCTIONS:
For this SWA, the goal is to keep you moving forward on your MWA 3 by helping you reflect on the best possible interviewees related to your topic, so that you can then plan and conduct your interview. First, if you are not familiar with how to set-up, conduct, record, and reflect an interview that you conduct, take a look at this PowerPoint from Purdue OWL.
Prep work:
1. Decide on a pool of possible interviewees. What kinds of personal stories and experiences would you want to hear about to help you think through the topics in your research project? Who do you know that might have experienced these kinds of things?
(Hint: don’t just think about who YOU know; instead, think about the people you know
and who THEY know. For example, you might not know a politician, but maybe your grandmother does. Those secondary connections can help you find a better interviewee that you might actually have access to.)
2. Go through the process of scheduling and planning your interview. The earlier you schedule this, the better.
3. Plan for how you will record the interview (you will need this recording for MWA 4, probably). You will NOT need to submit the recording. There are some newer interviewing phone apps to help you record and transcribe your interview, so maybe check out your app store. Otter is one recommendation. You could also just use the voice recorder that comes standard on all smart phones.
4. Put together your interview questions. The Field Research PowerPoint will help with this. Having excellent interview questions is the key to making field research useful.
For the written portion of this SWA, reflect on the interview by responding to the following:
1. Summarize the interview. For example, you might talk about who you interviewed, the questions you asked, and other such things.
2. What did you learn about your topic and the concepts you are researching for your MWA 3? What does your field research add to your understanding for your research project?
3. What was surprising from the interview?
4. How did you do with your prep work? What should you have done differently? If you didn’t get the information you really needed, do you need to conduct a follow-up interview?
5. Anything else you want to note about the interview and field research?
Be sure to use MLA formatting for this SWA assignment. Remember to format your response with a clearly and fully developed body. Refer to the sheet on D2L explaining my expectations and grading rubric for these types of writings before submitting your final draft. Also, remember to only use “I, me, my” pronouns when you are talking about personal experiences, so avoid “I think/ feel/ believe” kinds of statements; they hurt your credibility. “You” is almost always inappropriate in academic writing, so consider words you could use that are more specific and say exactly what you mean.
Include a Works Cited page for the interview in order to avoid plagiarism. Need help with citing an interview? Check this out.
