Who do you talk to when you need two "experts" in the field to interview?  Everyone, except your friend, your immediate family, or OSH school employees

Chat with local business people,  instructors, people with out of the ordinary knowledge based on first hand experience with your topic, etc.

Making that Contact Phone Call

Interview Requirements

You MUST conduct 2 interviews for a successful I-search paper.

• One MUST be face to face. (Remember this was one of the requirements for choosing a good topic.)

• The second can be any of the following: another face to face, a phone interview, or a location interview.

• Note:  You may NOT interview your friend, your immediate family, or OSH school employees for this paper.

For each interview, you will need to do the following:

1. Describe the setting of the interview.

2. Describe the interviewee.

3. Explain what makes this person an expert on this topic.

4. Describe your personal response to the interview.

5. Get at least one direct quote.

6. Get the signature of the person you interview on your notes.

7. Take your notes and put important information on note cards.

8. Get the mailing address of the person you interview.

When you write about the interview in your paper, you will need to write it like a story.  Be sure you take enough good, descriptive notes to do this.

Interviewing Tips

Questioning Strategies:

• Be sure to use open-ended questions as much as possible.  Try to use questions which allow the person being interviewed to do as much of the talking as possible.

• If something really strikes your interest, be sure to follow up on it.  Sometimes the most interesting parts of an interview come about as a result of questions you hadn't even thought of before the interview began.

• Come prepared with questions…don't just wing it!!

Interview Etiquette:

• Begin and end on time.

• Show a lot of enthusiasm.  If your interviewee sees that you're genuinely interested, s/he will be more inclined to open up. 

• Be sure to dress appropriately, depending on how well you know you interviewee.

• Get permission before you use a tape recorder.

• Take good notes.

• Say thank you.