English Writing About Airbnb

Turn this in with your interview guide and your notes:

Short Report #2: In-depth Interview

This is an INDIVIDUAL assignment.

Each group member will conduct an in-depth interview with a person of his/her choice, someone who can help your group answer some of its research questions. Before the interviews, the group must collaborate to prepare an interview guide (sometimes called a script): this is a plan for the interview, including an introduction and the topics to be covered, with suggested questions for each topic area as well as any activities or aids you plan to use in the interview (e.g. show a picture or have the respondent complete an exercise). The interview guide helps the qualitative interviewer prepare and stay focused in the interview; however, the interviewer has great flexibility in question order and phrasing, and even can pursue a relevant topic that comes up in the interview but is not in the guide (sometimes the surprises are the most insightful!). See the interview guide example in chapter 5.

For this short report, each person will turn in the following (put all 3 parts in one file/document, please):

1) Copy of the interviewer guide that your group prepared (should be the same for all group members if you all are interviewing the same type of person; if you are interviewing different categories of people the guide may be different).

2) The worksheet below, filled out completely (please type).

3) Copy of the notes you took during the interview, with important facts or quotes highlighted/marked and annotated (these are points that will provide evidence for the themes and conclusions you draw from the interview). Annotations could be notes in the margins with your thoughts, interpretations and identification of themes (the Word doc comment feature works well for this – see the example in the assignment folder). If your notes are handwritten, you must scan or photograph them and upload them with the report after making your annotations.

Where does this short report fit in the final group paper?

Once the interviews are done and you receive my feedback, the group will discuss and then write up a synthesis of the 4 interviews for the final group paper, noting common themes discovered, important information learned, and questions to be explored further. The individual interview worksheets may be included in the appendix of the final paper (optional).

Qualitative Interview Report:

Your name: _______________________________________

1. Your group’s overall research goal (state as a problem statement or question – what are you trying to find out for your client overall?):

2. Research goals/information needs for these specific qualitative interviews. These can be stated as research questions, for example, “What makes consumers loyal to Starbucks?” Remember: research questions are not the same thing as the interview questions you will actually ask the interviewee. They are your guiding information goals for this particular data collection method:

3. Why is an in-depth interview a useful method (vs. other methods) for fulfilling the information needs identified in #2?

4. Sampling: What method was used to select your respondent, and why did you use that method (e.g. convenience, judgment, etc.)?

5. Interview Details:

A. Who are you interviewing? (Do not provide real name; instead give pseudonym and pertinent demographic or characteristic information.)

B. Where/how did you conduct the interview? Describe environment and your reason for choosing it, as well as any other relevant information.

C. Timing: When was the interview and how long did it last?

6. Interview Analysis – Progress Toward Research Goals

A. What did you learn that will help you answer the research questions you identified in #2? Talk about each one. Be careful not to generalize to the population – this is just one interview, so it does not tell you about all consumers/millennials/etc.

B. What, if anything, did you learn about your issue that was a surprise, something you may want to pursue further in your group’s research?

7. Discussion

· Based on your interview, identify at least one theme that the research team should investigate further in future interviews or surveys (review book explanation of what a theme is!). Support your theme with evidence, i.e., a quote or observation from your notes.

· Does your interview guide need revision before further interviews are conducted? In what way?

· Reflect on the experience of conducting an in-depth interview. How difficult was the interview? What would you do differently next time?

Attach your interview guide and your highlighted and annotated interview notes to this report.