Sociology essay assignment
Comparison Interview Project
40 points+ 10 points for presentation
1. Select (2) people to interview for at least 35 minutes each, on the topic of your choice.
2. Contact the (2) people and arrange:
A. Time for the interview that will be convenient and interruption-free. (phones, children)
B. Schedule the interviewees at their residence or work place.
C. Keep track of date and time of the interview and make a reminder call 1 or 2 days before the scheduled time, to remind the person of the appointment.
3. Decide on a recording device:
· A combination of audio recording and note taking is usually helpful
· You must receive verbal consent to use the recording device.
4. Confidentiality agreement - make a verbal statement to the person that the information they are sharing with you will be kept completely confidential, their name will not be used and only the content of their answers will be recorded and analyzed. Than say: “are you clear and comfortable with that?”
5. Select a set of questions that will provide you with in-depth quality information. You should have between 10-15 questions depending on your topic, including statistical information.
A. As discussed previously, you should begin with statistical questions.
B. All of your interviews should include, gender, age, race/ethnicity (if relevant), and educational background (major, degrees).
C. If you are doing a comparison between the two people (which is highly recommended) then some statistical questions might be also relevant such as job title, length of relationship, length of training etc…
6. Immediately following an interview, you should review your notes and rewrite any missing information. If you have an audio recording, then a transcript would also be very useful. If time is a problem, I would paraphrase the answers and use that as your field notes.
7. Once, both interviews have been completed and your notes have been written. Its time for your analysis of the findings. It’s best to take one question at a time and analyze the answers given by your two respondents. And make some notes as to your theory of why there is a difference or similarity in the answers.
8. Conclusion. Once you have completed all the comparisons and found your theory or patterns, your conclusion should reflect all the responses received.
Format for Typed report: 2-3 pages minimum, 1” margin, top of page, double space.
1. Discuss topic and goal for the research.
2. How respondents were selected and why? Convenience, snowball, etc..
A. time and place of interview, length of interview
B. recording device(s)
C. any environmental problems that might have taken place
D. rapport with each person you interviewed
E. techniques you used to obtain more information and/or obtain more details
4. Analysis of findings: summarize the answers from both respondents and your theories and comments. You do not need to discuss every question so choose the ones that provided you with the most information and diversity of answers.
5. Conclusions: what does data mean? What would you tell an audience regarding the topic or what can you conclude based on these 2 interviews?
6. Analysis of research: discuss what you would do differently, if anything. Discuss any problems that occurred during the interview, challenges etc..
7. Overall opinion-What did you learn about yourself in this role? Did you like being an interviewer?
8. Attach field notes and a copy of your questions
Preparing for Interview: There is a lot to remember here, so keep in mind you are new at this and perfection is not the goal. Rather experiencing how to interview someone is the big lesson. Like everything else it will take practice.
Highly advise you to record the interview- check phone battery and take notes
1. Identify your topic and person of interest
2. Contact person(s) and set up time for interview (discuss limiting interruptions, kids, phones etc.) Be specific of location and time.
3. Call person for a quick reminder of your interview
4. Decide order of questions
· placement can affect responses
· start with interesting non-threatening questions
· develop a rapport with person
· emotionally difficult topics- towards the end
· “cool down questions”- to ensure everything you needed to cover was
5. need to establish direction for the conversation
6. watch for biased questions as it will lead to biased answers
7. don’t forget to Listen and hear the answer
8. don’t interrupt respondent unless it’s to redirect them back to topic
9. limit the MAIN topics and focus on that
TIPS during the Interviewing Subjects:
1. Be ready to use How is that? In what way? How do you mean?
2. Don’t worry about silence- it’s normal
3. You don’t need to impress the person with your knowledge. In this situation, you play the ignorant person
4. Stay judgment free- do not add comments that show approval/ disapproval Thank the person for their time.
After interview : (do as soon as possible)
· Type notes, finish sentences, complete thoughts.
· Look for themes, quotes, patterns of answers
· Look for similarities and differences